[aur-general] Licenses, GPL3 only

[Philipp Überbacher]

Excerpts from Alexander Duscheleit's message of 2010-08-27 21:31:29 +0200:
> On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:22:03 +0100
> Peter Lewis <pete at muddygoat.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Thursday 26 August 2010 at 18:57 Alexander Duscheleit wrote:
> > > Philipp Überbacher <hollunder at lavabit.com> wrote:
> > > > Besides that, I think it's future proof.
> > > > One issue though is that the meaning of:
> > > > ('GPL2' 'GPL3')
> > > > isn't the same as:
> > > > 'GPL2 or later'
> > > > It only is practically the same because there's nothing beyond
> > > > GPL3 yet.
> > > 
> > > Just out of curiosity...
> > > 
> > > Supposed, there is a GPL4 around at some time in the future.
> > > Now, if I receive some software under the terms of "GPL2 or later",
> > > would it be in my right, to redistribute said software under "GPL3
> > > only" as opposed to "GPL3 or later"?
> > 
> > Yes, this is your right. Just as you can take some software released
> > under "GPL2 or at your option, any later version" and redistribute it
> > under GPL3 only. This is "your option". You do not have the pass the
> > option on, since that doesn't form part of the copyleft.
> > 
> > Of course, someone else can redistribute the original under GPL2
> > only, GPL4 only, GPL2 "or later" or GPL3 "or later". That's their
> > option :-)
> > 
> That was my understanding, too. :-)
> 
> It gets more interesting, when I make changes to my redistributed
> software, though.
> If i understand correctly, if upstream is GPL2+ and my version is GLP3
> only, I effectively either cut upstream out from my changes or force
> them to upgrade their version to GPL3 only (not even GPL3+).
> This looks to me, like I could violate the spirit of the GPL through the
> GPL itself.
> (Poaching in lawyers waters as a layman sure is fun :-D.)
> 
> Jinks

Someone in #fsf on freenode might be able to answer you. I guess the
answer would be: "optimally there would be no such thing as GPLvN only".
-- 
Philipp

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