Nuking "or later" in the sources
Andy Green
andy at warmcat.com
Wed Sep 20 19:53:10 UTC 2006
Rich Felker wrote:
> Shouldn't a passing grade in logic be a prerequisite for participating
> in license threads, BTW?
Giving the point sufficient time of day to understand it before
pronouncing a randomized version of it 'illogical, captain' should
perhaps be a prerequisite too. I'll describe my point another way to
see if it is clearer.
Considering that you are distributing a package that came to you on GPL2
"or later" terms to a recipient under GPL2-only terms, how will you
define to the recipient that your distribution action was specifically
under GPL2-only terms? Talking about it on the mailing list was enough?
You'll just tell them afterwards if they ask? Or you will add a note
in a README.GPL2ONLY and the website? Or something else? You are going
to get it in writing somehow, right?
The issue I raise is that if you do not edit the license in the source
files what you distribute is in a state of conflict. On the one hand a
note presumably says in the toplevel dir "hey all this is GPL2-only",
but the individual source files themselves would continue to proclaim
that they can be "modified" on terms of GPL2 "or later". This seems to
me an unclear state of affairs where someone receiving the sources left
like that can argue that you gave them the sources retaining the "or
later" language on "or later" terms despite the disclaimer that came
with the whole package. No doubt Judge Felker would halt the trial and
feed these peons to the dogs, but you can see there is a basic conflict
there in what the sources of the project are saying.
>> Further, is it not the case that anyone who has any GPL2 "or later"
project plans to "distribute under the terms of GPL 2" should make sure
he does the same thing? Not talking about removing copyright notices
just making sure that each file contains the actual terms of that
distribution action (which otherwise is probably not committed to
writing anywhere...)
>
> Huh?
IOW if anyone plans to take the GPL2-only option when distributing any
GPL2 "or later" project, maybe the way to show everyone downstream that
you did that is to take a hatchet to the "or later" text in the sources.
-Andy
More information about the busybox
mailing list