[TriLUG] GPLv3 -- What do you think?

Rick DeNatale rick.denatale at gmail.com
Wed Mar 15 17:47:47 EST 2006


On 3/15/06, Tarus Balog <tarus at opennms.org> wrote:
>
> On Mar 15, 2006, at 1:47 PM, Rick DeNatale wrote:
>
> > The actual license is part of the source code, and incorporates a GPL
> > license by reference. GPL v2 says that IF the program specifies that
> > it is licensed under GPL v.2 OR ANY LATER LICENSE then newer licences
> > apply (actually that the user can choose which license to follow).
>
> I see this as more of an upgrade path. If I publish some code under
> GPL v2, then it is always available under GPL v2. So supposed Widget
> 1.0 was published under GPL v2 and contains code copywritten by
> several contributors.
>
> So the maintainers of Widget decide to use GPL v3 for all future
> work. I take that clause to mean that Widget 2.0 *could* be published
> under GPL 3 (i.e. future work to Widget) without getting the
> unanimous approval of the copyright holders to Widget 1.0, as long as
> the "or (at your option) any later version." clause was in the original.
>
> The key part is "future work". All the GPL does is determine rights
> at the time of publication (release, whatever). There is no way to
> retroactively go back and change the license once it is published.
> But you can change things with future publication.

Except that the purpose of section 9 of GPL v.2 (or the identical
section 14 in the draft of v3) does allow the copyright holder(s) to
specifically state that a user may choose to follow the licence in
effect at time of publication OR any future version, or to allow the
user to choose ANY version of the GPL if the copyright holder(s) omit
a specific version number.

I'm curious as to how many copyright holders who have thought about
this section actually have chosen to allow users to choose alternative
versions of the GPL.  In some sense doing so might seem to be most in
line with the FSF philosophy, but it does seem to be a "leap of faith"
on the part of the copyright holders that they and the FSF will be in
accord on all aspects of the GPL in perpetuity.

--
Rick DeNatale

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