Re: GPL version, "at your option"?

[Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com>]

On Nov 17, 2004, at 20:04, David Schwartz wrote:
> 	Your logic is totally flawed. Successor versions can certainly add
> limitations.

Your logic is equally flawed.

> 	Consider the following hypothetical, GPL version 3 allows you to 
> relicense
> the code under the FreeBSD license. Someone relicenses Linux (with 
> lots of
> later modification) under the FreeBSD license. Now people who receive 
> the
> binaries from this new stream of Linux are not entitled to the source 
> code.
s/relicense/distribute/g;  You can't relicense code without owning the 
original
copyright.  You _can_ however, receive a license to distribute.

If I receive a binary from them, I receive the original "dual" license. 
This means
that anyone who receives it may license it using GPL version "2" or, at 
their
option, any later version.  This means that when I get some binaries 
from some
random company that used your mythical version 3 to distribute under the
terms of any BSD license, I _also_ receive a license to the same code 
under
the terms of GPL v2 (at my option :-D).  This means that since my 
license from
company X is GPL v2 (at my option), I must receive sources under GPL 
v2. In
practice this means that you _can't_ change much of what the GPL says in
future versions, at least as far as I can see, without causing said 
future version
to be legally invalid.

> 	Suppose GPL version 3 has no requirement that you make the source
> available. I can then ship Linux without making any source available 
> at all
> by claiming that I'm using that later version at my option.

And I can equally legally demand the sources under GPL version 2, at my
option, and you will be forced to give them to me, not at your option 
:-D.

Cheers,
Kyle Moffett

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