On Friday 15 June 2007 09:02:54 Carlo Wood wrote: > On Fri, Jun 15, 2007 at 06:33:51AM -0400, Daniel Hazelton wrote: > > Incorrect. Read section 9 of the GPLv2. It's pretty clear that the "any > > later version" clause is optional. Whats more is that since the modern > > linux kernel *IS* a "composite work" composed of Linus' original code > > with changes contributed by other people - Linus retains copyright to the > > work as a whole. > > Huh - surely not to files added to the kernel that were written by > others from scratch!
Even those. > > This means that he can license it in any manner he chooses, as long as it > > doesn't affect the copyrights (or licensing) of the people that have > > contributed changes. I don't have to go to the US copyright law for this > > - Linus released Linux under the GPL, others made changes and sent them > > back saying "You let me have access to your code under the GPL, I've made > > some changes that make it better. You can have my changes under the GPL." > > QED: Linus still holds copyright to Linux and can license it in any way > > he chooses. > > This is totally new to me - if this is true - I'd really like to be sure! > I always thought that it would be necessary to get signatures of each > and every contributor before you can change a license of a file. Why do > you think that the FSF demands written copyright-transfers with > signatures before you are allowed to submit a patch to any of their > largers projects? If they - as original copyright holder - could do > what you claim - they wouldn't need those signatures. They don't. They demand the signature so that some contributor can't change their mind at a later date or even be able to give a proprietary software vendor the ability to use the GPL'd code in a non-GPL project. > Having signed a copyright transfer for 'future' changes for gprof, > libiberty, readline, zlib, gcc, gdb, libstdc++, bfd, dejagnu, gas, > and binutils, > Carlo Wood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> DRH -- Dialup is like pissing through a pipette. Slow and excruciatingly painful. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
