> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2021 at 4:24 AM > From: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <ma...@orcam.me.uk> > To: "Christopher Dimech" <dim...@gmx.com> > Cc: "Paul Koning" <paulkon...@comcast.net>, "Jakub Jelinek" > <ja...@redhat.com>, "GCC Development" <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> > Subject: Re: Update to GCC copyright assignment policy > > On Tue, 1 Jun 2021, Christopher Dimech wrote: > > > > It is a real problem. As I recall a while ago parts of QEMU had to be > > > removed and reimplemented from scratch when the project switched licences, > > > because a contributor and therefore a copyright holder (whom I knew in > > > person and who I am sure would make no fuss about it) has since passed > > > away. > > > > That assumes that one wants to use the original developer version. But if > > a maintainer > > wants to include and support that piece of code for some particular reason, > > he should be > > able to do it. A free software license should not stop us from using the > > code, whether he > > died or not. Indeed the licensing is there to avoid such problems. It is > > also legally > > enforceable. It was one of wy arguments in favour. > > You can use and modify original code under the terms of the original > licence (provided it permitted it), but you cannot change the licence, > because you are not a copyright holder for that piece of code. > > Maciej
You can change it as much as the license allows you. The gpl is intended to give you back all the rights taken from you by copyright. Thusly, you are not restricted by anyone because they have the copyright of the original work. It's important that you understand this.
