For those so dedicated to the art of coding not to have heard of GPL and LGPL, they are, respectively, the GNU General Public License and the GNU Lesser General Public License. They are one of the most ubiquitous open source Software Licenses around and are developed and sponsored by the Free Software Foundation. Almost 75% of open source software is licensed under the GPL V2., a license that was last revised 15 years ago.
Since then, there have been many changes in the computing world (the internet for example, a proliferation of multimedia etc) and the FSF felt that the license needed revising and rewriting.
And, as with so many things involving the FSF and R. Stallman, the proposed changes have created something of a storm amongst many developers. Probably the most publicised disagreement was voiced by Linus Torvalds (developer of Linux), who stated that as the license stood, he wouldn't be moving Linux over to it (it would stay with V2). Much of the disagreements are over the part of the GPL that will deal with DRM and TC platforms. And the general feeling that it was more than a license and more of a political statement.
If you are not an open source software developer, this may not seem like such a big deal, but in many ways, it could be a turning point in the way software is developed and licensed. Over the last few years F/LOSS software has become an important 'source' of high quality code and applications and they slowly get better and better, to the extent that commercial companies have started to take notice. Tivo was one of the first companies to take GPL software and install it in a hardware box that they built their business around. And the source was available. Unfortunately, modified versions of the code couldn't be run on the box. This satisfied the letter of the GPL, but violated the spirit and is one of the loopholes that GPLV3 is meant to close.
This is just one example of many where changes in the way software is used has outgrown the original GPLV2 (web applications are another big area), allowing companies to abuse the license it was originally distributed with. The new V3 of the license is meant to close those loopholes and clarify other areas of the license that were always somewhat 'grey'. This added clarification of the license is important when the license is used in a court of law.
So, on the one hand, the F/LOSS world is trying to upgrade the license of the sofware that it creates, but if enough developers disagree with it, then it may never take off. There are, after all, many other licenses to choose from... and even the original GPLV2.
If you are interested, the following links provide further information:
FSF Home Page
FSF GPLV3 Home
Interesting discussion on Groklaw
Newsforge analysis