[License-discuss] OSI Adopts SPDX IDs for License URLs

[Richard Fontana]

I agree with the comment. SPDX's replacement of GPL-2.0/GPL-2.0+ with
"GPL-2.0-only"/"GPL-2.0-or-later" (etc.) (at the instigation of the
FSF) has been pretty much a complete debacle IMO, but "GPL-2.0"
continues to be a valid SPDX identifier and I think it is usefully
used for things like this where the license is one level of
abstraction removed from its actual application to some sort of
licensable material.

Richard

On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 11:19 AM Nick Vidal <nick.vidal at opensource.org> wrote:
>
> Cross posting comment from ferdnyc at https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML/issues/2959#issuecomment-4018341555
>
> I wanted to bring up the GPL specifically: I notice that OSI is listing all of the GPL versions as "GPL-X.Y-only" (and in fact, URLs like https://opensource.org/license/GPL-3.0-or-later result in a 404 error), but the license text displayed at https://opensource.org/license/GPL-3.0-only has a "How to Apply These Terms..." section that includes the "either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version." text, making it appear to be GPL-3.0-or-later.
>
> (In truth, AIUI the FSF doesn't differentiate between GPL-3.0-only and GPL-3.0-or-later themselves, the difference is in how you choose to apply the license to your work. But in light of that, calling the license "GPL-3.0-only" doesn't appear to be correct... it's either just "GPL-3.0", or it's "GPL-3.0-or-later" (as it allows for the "any later version" stipulation, or it's BOTH.)
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 9:16 AM Nick Vidal <nick.vidal at opensource.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> The OSI is looking for feedback from the community about an important change to the OSI-Approved licenses listed on our website.
>>
>> We've standardized OSI license URLs using SPDX identifiers, while carefully preserving compatibility with the many links that already exist across the web and tools.
>>
>> The full set of OSI-approved licenses continues to be available at:
>>
>> https://opensource.org/licenses
>>
>> More details about the update is available here:
>>
>> https://opensource.org/blog/osi-adopts-spdx-ids-for-license-urls
>>
>> If you spot any broken links or odd behaviour, please let us know.
>>
>> Feel free to reach out to us by replying to this mailing list or by commenting here:
>>
>> https://github.com/spdx/license-list-XML/issues/2959
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Nick
>
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