Re: GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Tue, 31 Jan 2006, Linus Torvalds wrote:

under the GPL", not "GPLv2 or later". The _only_ license rights anybody
ever had to those files come from the COPYING file, which very clearly
states that it's "version 2, 1991"

No one has disputed that I think. My understanding of that text, as in:


                    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
                       Version 2, June 1991

Is that it refers as the version of the license itself. The 'revision ID' of the published license. And that very version of the GPL has a clause to allow version 'conversion' in section 9 to other versions.

The COPYING file was edited (over _five_ years ago) to clarify the issue,

That wasn't clarifying the issue, that was to make sure section 9's "any version" could no longer apply. You even seem to have acknowledged that very text of section 9 in your announcement of 2.4.0-test8's COPYING change:

`There's been some discussions of a GPL v3 which would limit licensing to certain "well-behaved" parties, and I'm not sure I'd agree with such restrictions - and the GPL itself allows for "any version" so I wanted to make this part unambigious as far as my personal code is concerned."'

From:

http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0009.1/0096.html

Until you made that change, a reasonable person might have presumed that lack of version statement (no, the actual GPL license version at the top of the GPL itself does not count ;) ) would mean section 9 would have applied.

I'm not familiar enough with Linux kernel history to know whether the implicit "only version 2" view was widely known amongst kernel developers back then, prior to the edit.

and that has been the case for the last 5+ years.

Right. The "version 2 only" only has been the status quo for 5+ years now, so most people must be content with it, grudgingly or not.

Exactly. That's why I added the clarification on top of the COPYING file: people _have_ been confused.

Read your own email again. :)

That confusion doesn't stem from Linux, btw, but from the FSF distribution
of the GPLv2 license itself. The license is distributed as one single
file, which actually contains three parts: (1) the "preamble", (2) the
actual license itself and (3) the "How to Apply These Terms to Your New
Programs" mini-FAQ.

And that third part actually contains the wording "(at your option) any
later version.",

Right.

But the actual /license/, the second part, says none specified -> "any version ever published" in section 9. The "any later version" text is in the 3rd part, the suggested preamble.

files.  In other words, that was never actually part of the license
itself, but just a "btw, here's how you should use it" post-script.

Right. But there are *two* (any.*version):

1. "Any version", which is:

	a) In the license itself, to cover case where programme
	   doesn't specify which version(s) apply, as section 9.
	   (ie in the "second part").

	b) the text you refered to in the 2.4.0-test8 above (ie
 	   you were looking at section 9 back then, not the preamble ;) )

2. "Any later version", which is what is mentioned in the preamble
   (the third part).

Alan's reply to you was on the basis of 1. You're arguing based on 2, having apparently completely overlooked 1 (though you apparently had not back when you composed that 2.4.0-test8 email).

regards,
--
Paul Jakma	[email protected]	[email protected]	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
God is real, unless declared integer.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

[Index of Archives]     [Kernel Newbies]     [Netfilter]     [Bugtraq]     [Photo]     [Stuff]     [Gimp]     [Yosemite News]     [MIPS Linux]     [ARM Linux]     [Linux Security]     [Linux RAID]     [Video 4 Linux]     [Linux for the blind]     [Linux Resources]
  Powered by Linux