License Committee Report for August 2007

[Donovan Hawkins]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2007, Chris Travers wrote:

> Russ Nelson wrote:
>> 
>> Title: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)
>> Submission:
>>
>> 
> <anip>
>> Recommend: approval, placement in Popular category as the successor to
>>   the GPLv2.
>> 
>
> I note the words "the successor to."  Does this mean that the GPL2 is being 
> moved out of the popular category?

I'm also curious about that question. I'd argue that if the Linux kernel 
(probably one of the most significant pieces of GPL software, if not the 
poster child) is staying exclusively under GPL v2 then v2 is not redundant 
yet. Some might even debate it being the "successor".

Also, given the lack of compatibility between v2 and v3 it will probably 
be some time before going v3 is practical for most people. An extended 
period of dual licensing seems likely...not sure how many have already 
dual licensed via an "or later" clause on the version number.

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Donovan Hawkins, PhD                 "The study of physics will always be
Software Engineer                     safer than biology, for while the
hawkins at cephira.com                   hazards of physics drop off as 1/r^2,
http://www.cephira.com                biological ones grow exponentially."
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