On 14 November 2010 20:52, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 5:29 AM, Jeroen Demeyer <jdeme...@cage.ugent.be> > wrote: >> In the developer documentation, in the section "Headings of Sage library >> code files", there is an example heading stating >> #***************************************************************************** >> # Copyright (C) 2008 YOUR NAME <your email> >> # >> # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) >> # http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ >> #***************************************************************************** >> >> I think this should be changed to state the version of the GPL. The >> current wording is maybe not technically wrong, but adding the version >> would certainly clarify things. >> >> I have created a patch at #10263 (needs_review) changing this to >> #***************************************************************************** >> # Copyright (C) 2010 YOUR NAME <your email> >> # >> # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) >> # as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of >> # the License, or (at your option) any later version. >> # http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ >> #***************************************************************************** >> >> Note that this is NOT a policy change, just a clarification. > > +1. I certainly can't see any drawback to being clearly with our > copyright statements in the way you suggest above. > > -- > William Stein
I can see one drawback. If you don't state a version, people can use any version they want. The GPL says that. "If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation." If we do get into issues, and decide that really we should have licensed things under version X and not Y there is no problem. So by not specifying a version, we do leave more flexibility. If anything, it might be better to say " Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). You may use any version of the GPL you want. " Dave -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
