For Approval: GPLv3

[Chris Travers]

First, I want to get back to this question:

What exactly does it mean to remove permissions under the GPL3?  What 
are the effects of such a removal?  Really......

So far, I have heard two things which seem at odds with eachother.  The 
first is that this creates a requirement on other open source licenses 
to allow them to be properly sublicensed under the GPL (which creates a 
new contract between licensor and licensee).  For obvious reasons, this 
does *not* work with the GPL3 additional permissions.

The second thing I have heard is that other licenses essentially amount 
to GPL3 + other permissions and restrictions.  If they have 
restrictions, those have to be evaluated in section 7 to see if they are 
compatible.   If they have additional permissions, those can be 
removed.  However under every case, the licensee gets the original grant 
(including additional permissions) from the original licensor since 
sublicensing is prohibited under the GPL3.  In this theory, the notice, 
but not the actual permission is removed.

Since I am not a lawyer, I am doing my best to try to understand this 
(very complicated) license both in what it purports to do but also *how* 
it accomplishes this.

FWIW, I have made attempts to contact people involved in the GPL3 
process to get a better understanding of this.  It has been confirmed 
(as the Rationale for the First Discussion Draft seems to indicate) that 
the intent for compatibility is to allow inclusion only of other 
licenses which allow sublicensing under the GPL itself.   But this 
obviously doesn't work with GPL license exceptions.  So what is the 
mechanism?  I would humbly suggest we ask the Software Freedom Law 
center or the Free Software Foundation to clarify this point: 

What exactly does this portion mean?  Is it an exception to the 
sublicensing prohibition?  Is it supposed to mean that if I grant 10 
licensing exceptions, I have agreed to over a thousand different 
redistribution contracts?  Have I agreed to enforce them?  If I don't 
enforce contracts as recieved with the missing permissions, do I risk 
letting laches occur?

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers
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