Just a question about the GPLv3 [LWN.net]

Just a question about the GPLv3

Posted Sep 26, 2006 16:11 UTC (Tue) by smoogen (subscriber, #97)
In reply to: Just a question about the GPLv3 by atai
Parent article: Some GPLv3 clarifications from the FSF

atai, I think Jeff is thinking of the following:

A project does not have a central body that gets all copyright assigned to it. Abel is a contributor and makes that he wants this additional part to be valid. Does the entire code then need to have to be distributed by anyone who uses it for a web app, or just his patches?

I would say no, but that would probably need to be litigated and the contract be found valid/non-valid under US/Euro/etc law. Code groups would have to be more diligent in who/how/when they got their patches from to make sure that people knew that their patches were only accepted under the top level license and not any optional license. This in some locales could only be enforced by a signed contract... which is the nightmare scenario that some are worried about.

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Just a question about the GPLv3

Posted Sep 26, 2006 20:13 UTC (Tue) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

Been there, done that. Remember XFree86 ? This project destroyed itself with this exact type of nonsense.

Of course if most contributors will agree that some additional restriction will be good - then it's other story. But single one... don't make me laugh...