License Committee Report for July 2007

[Brendan Scott]

John Cowan wrote:
> Wilson, Andrew scripsit:
> 
>> How -- exactly -- do you propose to relicense the entire
>> Combined Work under GPLv2 if all you have is an LGPLv3
>> license for the library in question?  You are not allowed
>> to relicense any of the LGPLv3-covered portions, except to
>> remove any section 7 additional permissions.
> 
> No relicensing is required.  When I create a combined work with some
> components under the GPLv2 license and others under the 3-clause BSD
> license, I am compelled to license the combined work as a whole under
> the GPLv2.  I am not thereby *relicensing* the BSD components, as indeed
> I have no right to do.  Rather, I am incorporating them into the combined
> work, as their license permits and the GPLv2 does not forbid.

I think this is not a trivial issue. 

The wording of GPLv2 is (my emphasis):

"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.*"

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html


Brendan