Raul Miller wrote:
On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 02:19:23PM +0100, Steve McIntyre wrote:
This excerpt is quite clear:
A Program may specify GPL2 and "any later version" - check
If the Program just says "GPL", the recipient may use any version - check
If the Program says "GPL v2" alone, there's nothing in S9 that leads
to later versions being applicable.
I can see why you'd think that. However, that's not one of the terms
offered by GPL v2.
It actually is, even explicitly. Section 0:
| 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
| a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
| under the terms of this General Public License.
It does not say "or any later version" here, and "this General Public
License" is of course this GPL v2.
So in section 0, GPL v2 declares itself applicable to works
that contain a notice saying it is.
In section 9, GPL v2 declares itself joint applicable, in the sense
of a dual, triple, ... licence, if the notice uses the given language,
for example says "v1 or (at your option) any later version" or does
not mention a version.
As usual, someone receiving a work under multiple licences can just
disregard any of them. If you accept GPL v2, you can modify the work
under section 2. 2(b) does not require you to preserve the notice:
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
parties under the terms of this License.
That would still be satisfied if you changed the notice from
This program is free software;
you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
later version.
to
This program is free software;
you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms version 2 of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation.
--
Marco
