License Committee Report for July 2007

[Michael Poole]

Brendan Scott writes:

> John Cowan wrote:
>> Brendan Scott scripsit:
>> 
>>> "But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which
>>> is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be
>>> on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees
>>> extend to the entire whole, *and thus to each and every part regardless
>>> of who wrote it.*"
>> 
>> Permissions, yes.  All the parts must offer the permissions of the GPLv2.
>> But it is not required that all the parts likewise impose the restrictions
>> of the GPLv2, only that the work as a whole do so.
>
> Assuming, for the sake of argument, that it only applies to permissions...
>
> If you concede that the GPLv2 permissions apply to each part, including the BSD part, aren't you also conceding that there is relicensing of the BSD part?

The BSD license grants all the permissions that GPLv2 does, and then
some.  (Another way to look at it is that the BSD license grants the
same permissions, but does not make some of the restrictions, that the
GPL does.)  This is true whether the BSD-licensed bits are part of a
GPLed whole or not; there is no relicensing involved in either case.

Michael Poole