On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 10:29:55AM -0600, paul cannon wrote: > Sort of the "tentacles of evil" thought exercise. This is what I was > always worried about when seeing that phrase. Sort of seems like a back > door being reserved. > > Could this even happen?
I doubt it. If someone tried it, it could be challenged under GPL lause 9: 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. Since the GPL spends a fair amount of text on explaining the copyleft concept, it's clear that effective-public-domain is not "similar in spirit". This would disqualify the GPLv4 from being a revised version under clause 9, and it should be obvious that a license statement that says "GPL v2 or any later version" means later versions as defined in GPL v2. Richard Braakman
