On 7/22/24 10:56, Carsten Agger wrote:
On 7/19/24 13:19, c.bu...@posteo.jp wrote:
The project is under GPLv2. This is stated on Microsoft GitHub, in the
license file, and the header of each code file. However, only the known
standard text of the GPLv2 has been copied without any modifications.
Further information on the licensing is unknown to me.
If I understand this standard text correctly, it does not explicitly
state whether a project is "GPLv2-only" or "GPLv2-or-later". This
distinction should be made elsewhere. But where exactly?
How should I proceed if I cannot determine this with certainty,
especially since I cannot get in touch with the previous authors
anymore? Are there any precedents for this?
Can I freely interpret the license and simply declare it as "-or-later"?
If all I had was the GPLv2 I'd not presume that "or later" was
intended. In order to make that assumption, I think "or later" needs
to be explicitly stated. I'm no lawyer, but that's what makes most
sense to me. "or later" is a relaxation of the original terms that
needs to be explicitly stated.
However, looking at the license boilerplate in the source files, I see this:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
# Back In Time
# Copyright (C) 2012-2022 Germar Reitze
#
# 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 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
# with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
# 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
I'd take that as sufficient justification to use "or later", if it goes
back to the original copyright holders.
Best
Carsten
--
Carsten Agger - ag...@fsfe.org
https://fsfe.org --- https://blogs.fsfe.org/agger/
FSFE Denmark Coordinator, General Assembly & European Team Member
Free Software, Free Society!
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