Implications for switching licenses mid-stream

[Rick Moen]

Quoting John Cowan (cowan at ccil.org):
> Rick Moen scripsit:

[not "actually having a legal right"]

> > Actually, yes, it does.  What do you think "absence of a tort" means?
> 
> Conduct may be non-tortious and yet ineffective for lack of the relevant
> legal power.  For example, it is not a tort for me to write a will that
> purports to dispose of your property as well as mine, but those clauses
> of the will aren't going to make anything happen after I die, because
> I lack the relevant legal power.

That is true, but in this case, we've spoken of a project leader who
_did_ issue a new instance of the codebase under a new licence.  That
deed, and the accompanying lack of any tort by which anyone might
enjoin, seems like all the legal power that ever _is_ available to one
of us featherless bipeds, neh?