Re: The GPL: No shelter for the Linux kernel?

[Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@linux01.gwdg.de>]

>> Side note: in "git", we kind of discussed this. And because the project 
>> was started when the whole GPL version discussion was already in bloom, 
>> the git project has a note at top of the COPYING file that says:
>> 
>>  Note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as this project
>>  is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not
>>  v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated.
>> 
>>  HOWEVER, in order to allow a migration to GPLv3 if that seems like
>>  a good idea, I also ask that people involved with the project make
>>  their preferences known. In particular, if you trust me to make that
>>  decision, you might note so in your copyright message, ie something
>>  like
>> 
>>         This file is licensed under the GPL v2, or a later version
>>         at the discretion of Linus.
>> 
>
>  Actually, this didn't catch on very well anyway, I guess because most
>people just know it's GPLv2 and don't even bother to peek at COPYING, we
>are a bit sloppy about copyright notices and most of them don't mention
>licence at all (if there are any in the file at all), and adding
>explicit copyright notices to mails isn't too popular either.

Would every file that does not contain an explicit license (this 
excludes MODULE_LICENSE) falls under COPYING?

>	$ git grep 'discretion'
>	COPYING:        at the discretion of Linus.
>	git-annotate.perl:# at the discretion of Linus Torvalds.
>	git-relink.perl:# Later versions of the GPL at the discretion of Linus Torvalds
>	git-request-pull.sh:# at the discretion of Linus Torvalds.
>
>and I've found no patches with such special assignment.


Jan Engelhardt
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