Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S965097AbWI1PqS (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:46:18 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965098AbWI1PqS (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:46:18 -0400 Received: from mail.gmx.net ([213.165.64.20]:23184 "HELO mail.gmx.net") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S965097AbWI1PqR (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:46:17 -0400 X-Authenticated: #5039886 Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:46:12 +0200 From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn?= Steinbrink To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rn?= Engel Cc: Linus Torvalds , Lennart Sorensen , Chase Venters , Sergey Panov , Patrick McFarland , Theodore Tso , Alan Cox , Jan Engelhardt , James Bottomley , linux-kernel Subject: Re: GPLv3 Position Statement Message-ID: <20060928154612.GA2035@atjola.homenet> Mail-Followup-To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Bj=F6rn?= Steinbrink , =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rn?= Engel , Linus Torvalds , Lennart Sorensen , Chase Venters , Sergey Panov , Patrick McFarland , Theodore Tso , Alan Cox , Jan Engelhardt , James Bottomley , linux-kernel References: <1158941750.3445.31.camel@mulgrave.il.steeleye.com> <1159415242.13562.12.camel@sipan.sipan.org> <200609272339.28337.chase.venters@clientec.com> <20060928135510.GR13641@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> <20060928141932.GA707@DervishD> <20060928144028.GA21814@wohnheim.fh-wedel.de> <20060928152020.GC21814@wohnheim.fh-wedel.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20060928152020.GC21814@wohnheim.fh-wedel.de> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) X-Y-GMX-Trusted: 0 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1639 Lines: 37 On 2006.09.28 17:20:20 +0200, J?rn Engel wrote: > On Thu, 28 September 2006 08:04:13 -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > > No. I _really_ want to clarify this, because so many people get it wrong. > > Really. > > > > The "GPLv2 only" wording is really just a clarification. You don't need it > > for the project to be "GPLv2 only". > > > > If a project says: "This code is licensed under this copyright license" > > and then goes on to quote the GPLv2, then IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE > > GPLv3! > > > > Or if you just say "I license my code under the GPLv2", IT IS NOT > > COMPATIBLE WITH THE GPLv3. > > And this is an area where I slightly disagree with you. While I would > hope that you were right, I can easily imagine a judge ruling that "v2 > or later" in the preamble means that the project just signed a blank > license of the FSF's discretion. The preamble does not say "v2 or later", that's only in "How To" section which is not part of the terms and conditions. But section 9 is even worse than "v2 or later". Linus' second exmaple is fine, it mentions v2 and therefore it actually is v2 only. But the first one means _any_ GPL version, even older versions, as it does not mention any version and section 9 says "If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation." ouch! Bj?rn - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/