On Friday 10 November 2006 12:27, Martin Simmons wrote: > >>>>> On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 07:18:52 +0100, Kern Sibbald said: > > > > The LICENSE will not be changed, only the copyright holder, so Bacula will > > continue to be distributed under GPL version 2 + a few additions that are > > specified in the LICENSE file. When GPL version 3 is released, we'll take a > > look at whether or not we want to use it (with input from Bacula users, of > > course). > > I'm a bit confused about the connection between copyright ownership and the > license. Are there any issues with changing the license if you don't own the copyright?
> Conversely, can the copyright owner change the license without > consulting anyone else? Yes, theoretically only the copyright holder(s) can change the license. However, the FSFE agreement is a fiduciary relationship, which is entered into for the purpose of protecting and defending the copyright. They leave the project management up to the project. Legally, they can change the license, but their intention is to change it only if the project wants to change it, or to be able to change the license if the project no longer exists and someone comes and tries to scoop up the code and make it non-free. As mentioned above, it is possible they could change the license while the project is active, but this would not be in their interest as it would generate some rather negative publicity. If their goal were to have all software under GPL, then I might be more worried about this, but they have explictly stated that they accept any free software license. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
