On Jun 17, 2007, Bernd Petrovitsch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, 2007-06-17 at 15:55 -0300, Alexandre Oliva wrote: >> On Jun 17, 2007, "Gabor Czigola" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> > I wonder why the linux kernel development community couldn't propose >> > an own GPL draft (say v2.2) that is "as free as v2" and that includes >> > some ideas (from v3) that are considered as good (free, innovative, in >> > the spirit of whatever etc.) by the majority of the kernel developers. >> >> For one, because the text of the GPL is copyrighted by the FSF, and >> licensed without permission for modification. And that's as it should >> be, you don't want others to modify the terms of the license you chose >> for your code, do you?
> That's probably precisely the reason for removing the "or later" so that > others (even if it's "only" the FSF) can't modify the terms of the > license chosen for the code. Yes, if you don't trust the organization entitled to publish revised versions to abide by its commitment to abide by a similar spirit, or if that spirit does not reflect your intent as a copyright holder, this are all rational reasons to remove the "or later", indeed (at least as much as distrust can be regarded as rational, that is ;-) However, as Ingo argued, not being able to patch holes, fix bugs and add new features is a very bad idea. He was talking about the software, but this is as true when it comes to the license. There are smarter ways of retaining control over licensing terms that don't paint yourself into a corner that's nearly impossible to get out of. For example, the license provisions could state "or any later version that CONDITION", where CONDITION reflects your intent as a copyright holder, or it could state "or any other license that CONDITION." They could also appoint a committee, or rules for formation of a committee, to make this sort of decisions on behalf of all the copyright holders involved. Of course, since these are in fact all additional permissions, anyone could take them out, or rather elect not to offer this option for their own contributions (and then you might end up refraining from merging them). The mechanics are no different from "or any later version" provisions, really, except that then you establish what the goals of your community are without blocking upgrades that wouldn't conflict, but that would rather further the interests of your own community. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED], gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED], gnu.org} - 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/
