For Approval: GPLv3
Chris Travers
chris at metatrontech.com
Sat Sep 1 19:18:06 UTC 2007
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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