Please tone down the GPL3 paranoia

[Jason Schoon]

On 9/15/06, Bruce Perens <bruce at perens.com> wrote:
>
> Rob Landley wrote:
> > The old code can still be used under the terms of the GPLv2.
> Yes, you may still use my old contributions under the GPL2 or indeed any
> GPL license whatsoever. But I want to be extremely clear about this. I
> do not wish you to redesignate my old contributions to be licensable
> under GPL2 only, and am quite sure that you would be violating my rights
> to do so, even if you differ.


I had to think about this a bit, but I believe Rob to be correct here
(obligatory IANAL, but like Rob, have studied law a great deal over the
years).  The license itself (correct me if I am wrong, but I just visited
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/info/GPLv2.html) does not state
anything about later licenses.  The "or later" clause is added by
individuals who select that license.

I think the key here is that it is "or later", not "and later".  If it were
the second, all users of the licensed code would be required to reuse it
under v2 and all subsequent license versions.  However, since it is an "or"
instead, they can select any of those, and reuse and license it under any,
include V2 only.

Thus, I request and require that you add a notice to the license
> statement for busybox that portions of the program are copyrighted by
> me, and may be licensed under the GNU General Public License without
> regard to the particular version of that license. You must preserve that
> notice in all further releases.


It seems to me here, that you are attempting to add additional restrictions
to the license, that were not there to begin with.

To the extent that you have made use of legal counsel, IMO you haven't
> asked them the right questions.


Perhaps.  What questions should be asked instead, and to whom should they be
presented?

    Bruce
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