Two GPL Questions

[Chris D. Sloan]

On Sun, Dec 09, 2001 at 11:05:56PM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> begin Chris D. Sloan quotation:
> > Assume there is a program called foo which is licensed under GPL v. 2
> > or, at your option any later version.  Can I make a change to that
> > program and release [my] version of foo under only GPL v. 2?
> 
> You can make any (lawful) terms you wish apply to your own additions.[1]
> You have no power to change other people's terms, pertaining to
> their code.

You have no right to create derivative works unless that right is
granted by the copyright holder.  They can grant you that right only
subject to certain conditions, so my question is, given that the GPL
restricts your rights to place restrictions on future licensees, can
you effectively remove their right to use foo together with your
changes with any version of the GPL other than v.2?

Another way of phrasing it might be:

Is code under GPL v2 only compatible with code under GPL 2 or later?

> [1] If those terms are compatible with those of the codebase you're
> modifying, then you and others might even be able to lawfully distribute
> the result.

As you say, lawful distribution is exactly what I'm interested in
here, not what rights you have for private copies, since the GPL
places many fewer restrictions on that.

-- 
Chris Sloan
cds at cs.hmc.edu
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