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

[Nick Vidal]

Thanks Simon and Richard for the guidance.

Now "zGPL-X.Y-only" and "zGPL-X.Y-or-later" will redirect to "zGPL-X.Y"

On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 7:28 PM Simon Phipps <simon at webmink.net> wrote:

> I agree with Richard here. The -only and -or-later variants are all
> deployment options for the GPL licenses and do not reflect the licenses
> that OSI has actually approved, which embrace both variants.
>
> Simon
> (in a personal capacity)
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 9:00 PM Richard Fontana via License-discuss <
> license-discuss at lists.opensource.org> wrote:
>
>> 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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