Sun to release OpenSolaris under GPL version 3 (Linux-Watch) [LWN.net]

Sun to release OpenSolaris under GPL version 3 (Linux-Watch)

Posted Jan 17, 2007 11:40 UTC (Wed) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341)
In reply to: Sun to release OpenSolaris under GPL version 3 (Linux-Watch) by forthy
Parent article: Sun to release OpenSolaris under GPL version 3 (Linux-Watch)

That's simply not true.

What people - including you - fail to realise is the "later version" language is not part of the license proper; it's only in there in an example of how to apply the license to your program. Since Linus never used that language, the Linux kernel always was under exactly one license, and one license ONLY - namely the one described in the LICENSE file, the GPLv2.

The change you refer to was just done to make it *clearer* that the "or later" is not and never was part of the kernel's license, so that people - like you - wouldn't be confused. Apparently, it didn't work out all that well, though...

(On a side note: of course individual parts of the kernel may be licensed under the GPLv2 or later versions; that's up to the individual authors, and since everyone keeps their copyright, authors are free to license their own code under other licenses in addition to the GPLv2. But the kernel as a whole is licensed under the GPLv2 only, and code that was contributed under the kernel's default license is GPLv2 only, too, until the author also licenses it under additional licenses.)

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Sun to release OpenSolaris under GPL version 3 (Linux-Watch)

Posted Jan 17, 2007 19:54 UTC (Wed) by grouch (subscriber, #27289) [Link]

The change you refer to was just done to make it *clearer* that the "or later" is not and never was part of the kernel's license, so that people - like you - wouldn't be confused. Apparently, it didn't work out all that well, though..

This is correct. Linux version 1.0 included the file "COPYING" which begins:

NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.
Linus Torvalds
----------------------------------------
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Within section 9. it says:

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

That is the only place the phrase "any later version" shows up in the COPYING file in linux-1.0. Permission was not granted to choose any later version. The last sentence of the above quoted portion of section 9. likewise does not apply, because a version number was specified. Linux has been GPLv2-only, at least since Linux 1.0. (I didn't check every version; it seems reasonable to assume that if "any later version" appeared with some version between 1.0 and now, it was merely by error).

(The licenses for versions prior to Linux 1.0 are contained in the RELNOTES-* files or other files outside the source tarball for each version).