Adaptive Public License

[John Cowan]

TW scripsit:

> The Initial Contributor holds the copyright to the Initial Work, so he
> is free to relicense the Initial Work as he likes anyway, right?

Yes, but the relicensing does not automatically apply to pre-existing
copies of the work, unless language like 5.2 is present.

> what does this section mean?  Does it mean something similar to the
> GPL section that says, the FSF may publish revised versions of the
> GPL, and any GPLed work may be used/distributed/modified under the
> revised version,

There is no such GPL provision.  When the GPL is *applied*, it is common
to use language like "version 2 or any later version", but some works,
like the Linux kernel, just say "version 2" and so version 3 is not
applicable to them.

> Wouldn't this give the Initial Contributor a lot of control over
> Subsequent Works, even if most of the work has been done by others
> after his Initial Contribution?  Could a revised/new version of the
> License be a completely different license like the GPL or a so called
> "Shared Source" license?  Would any Person be allowed to use any
> Subsequent Works that *predate* the revision of the License under the
> revised License?

Yes to all of these questions.  However, the licensee is always free to
use the older version if they prefer it.

-- 
Verbogeny is one of the pleasurettes    John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>
of a creatific thinkerizer.             http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
   --Peter da Silva