According to eWeek, developers don't want the GPLv3 to police patents or to prevent future deals such as the Microsoft-Novell deal. This according to a Microsoft-funded study available here. Quoting from the study:
While many developers cited displeasure with the patent element of the Novell-Microsoft deal, the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to restrict the use of modified open source software, or the enforcement of software patents, (all publicly by Stallman as drivers for the revision of the GPL) they did not believe it was the place of the GPLv3 or other licenses to prevent such deals or resolve such issues— “Restrictive licenses are not good for the community. I don’t want anybody telling me what I can do with my code.” They see the GPL as promoting one viewpoint about users’ rights at the expense of their own - “GPL is about freedom of code not freedom of choice... developer is forced to make it free.” They repeatedly expressed concern regarding whose freedoms were most important, users or developers, and whether “political views” were entering the license revision process. The GPLv3 was seen as extending restrictions on how people used software code to promote the agenda of the FSF – “I don’t want to take freedoms from my customers... new clauses in GPLv3 remove freedoms of how you can use the software. I don’t agree with that.” “Software licenses shouldn’t put restrictions on hardware vendors.”
