Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756251AbXFONOp (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:14:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754498AbXFONOi (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:14:38 -0400 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:41885 "EHLO the-village.bc.nu" rhost-flags-OK-FAIL-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753450AbXFONOi (ORCPT ); Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:14:38 -0400 Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:19:23 +0100 From: Alan Cox To: "Dmitry Torokhov" Cc: "Bernd Paysan" , "Alexandre Oliva" , "Paulo Marques" , "Al Viro" , "Krzysztof Halasa" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Message-ID: <20070615141923.63fd5cdd@the-village.bc.nu> In-Reply-To: References: <466A3EC6.6030706@netone.net.tr> <200706151048.57762.bernd.paysan@gmx.de> <20070615135739.14862d6d@the-village.bc.nu> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.9.1 (GTK+ 2.10.8; i386-redhat-linux-gnu) Organization: Red Hat UK Cyf., Amberley Place, 107-111 Peascod Street, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 1TE, Y Deyrnas Gyfunol. Cofrestrwyd yng Nghymru a Lloegr o'r rhif cofrestru 3798903 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1081 Lines: 22 O> GPL itself does not. But the author(s) may when they specify "any > later version", "dual GPL/BSD", etc. In this case (IMHO) distributor > in fact relicenses the code and may reduce license to sipmply BSD or > simply GPL, or "GPL v3 from now on". To "restore" license you would > need to go upstream and get the code from there. I don't see anything in the GPL that permits a redistributor to change the licence a piece of code is distributed under. If my code is GPL v2 or later you cannot take away the "or later" unless explicitly granted powers by the author to vary the licence. What you most certainly can do is modify it and decide your modifications are GPLv3 only thus creating a derived work which is GPLv3 only. However anyone receiving your modified version and reverting the modifications is back at v2 or later. Alan - 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/