Relicensing

Relicensing

Posted Sep 25, 2006 9:36 UTC (Mon) by forthy (guest, #1525)
In reply to: Relicensing by ringerc
Parent article: The 2006 Linux Filesystems Workshop (Part III)

He can. He wrote the GPLv2-only statement as interpretative comment on the lincense himself in the 2.4.0-pre-versions, without asking anyone, so he can remove it as well. It's his right as redistributor of GPL code to choose the license, when it is originally under GPLv2-or-later, and it is his right to change his choice. If anyone wants his code in Linux to be GPLv2-only, he has to mark it himself as such. AFAIK, nobody ever did (while quite a lot clairified that they really meant GPLv2-or-later).

Note that Linus does not have the right to change the GPL. All he can is to add comments to it. The GPLv2 is GPLv2 or later by default, unless explicitely stated otherwise, and you get the license from the original author. However, each redistributor can only be forced to do what he's obliged to under the license version he chose.

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