On Thu, 26 Jan 2006, Marc Perkel wrote:
There seems to be some confusion about licensing. I'm just going to see if I
can define the problem and the issues.
First - some people think all of Linux is under GPLv2 - but some people seem
to think it's really GPLv2 or later. That needs to be resolved. Can different
parts of Linux be controlled by multiple licenses. If so - that could create
confusion because someone would have to agree to all the licenses within
Linux in order to use it. The alternative is to say it's all GPLv2 and
exclude GPLv3 from inclusion. Do we want to do that.
I don't think there are any questions about what the "whole" of Linux is
governed under. It's governed by whatever the most 'restrictive' license
usage is, which is 'GPLv2 Only'. (The fact that GPLv2 Only doesn't apply
to the whole kernel or perhaps even to some past kernels doesn't matter -
you still can't package the whole as GPLv3)
The only discussion I see taking place any longer is basically irrelevant
to Linux and GPLv3 - it concerns whether or not other, older kernel
releases were legally GPLv2 Only or not. A disagreement on either the
intent, mechanism or action of parts of the GPL license, if you will.
Second - is GPLv3 Linux compatible. If Linux were to start over today would
it pick GPLv2 or GPLv3? Is there anything in GPLv3 that is not Linux
compatible. I would at least like to see GPLv3 (final draft) to be 100% Linux
compatible.
What does Linux compatible mean? Linus expressed some frustrations with
some of the new terms, so perhaps in that sense the new license is not
compatible.
If I'm reading him right, he doesn't want to restrain vendors like TiVO
from using the kernel and subsequently refusing to provide the public with
encryption keys necessary to build kernels to run on that hardware (for
example).
Suppose GPLv3 were Linux compatible and many existing authors and new authors
adopted GPLv3 but dead authors and some stubborn people and people who can't
be found are still at GPLv2. Lets also assume that critical parts of Linux
code are licensed in both worlds. What dos that mean? Does that mean that
GPLv3 prevails?
It's mental masturbation at this point. Suppose Linus approved of going to
GPLv3... there may be some little technical gotchas in terms of "dead
authors", but in that hypothetical, how many people would really be
worried that the descendents of these dead authors would actively act to
stop Linux from being distributed under the new license?
The bigger issue is that no matter where you fall on GPL's section 9,
_lots_ of code is undoubtedly GPLv2 only. These living authors would have
to agree to GPLv3, and as we now know, Linus does not.
This is something that might be worth doing some serious legal work on
because if we do it wrong it could bite us hard in the future. But I want to
try to properly raise the question here so that we all at least understand
the problem.
Why? I think it's pretty much a dead issue.
Cheers,
Chase
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