They're involved in the distribution

They're involved in the distribution

Posted Jul 11, 2007 1:13 UTC (Wed) by sepreece (subscriber, #19270)
In reply to: They're involved in the distribution by rickmoen
Parent article: Microsoft's proclamation on GPLv3

Perhaps not.

Note that I did not say that the redistributor passes along only certain rights. In fact, I said the opposite - the recipient gets to choose between the available license versions to determine what rights, otherwise reserved to the copyright holder, the license grants to the recipient.

As you say, the redistributor does not get to "set the terms for the distribution"; the copyright holder does that. However, if the copyright holder used the "or any later version" language, the redistributor gets to *choose* between the available alternative sets of terms. That is exactlly what the license says and the FAQ confirms.

The redistributor gets to choose one specific license version to define the terms under which it conveys the covered work. Those terms define the redistributor's obligations under the license, including the patent license implications.

Again, I do not believe that Microsoft has ever distributed a work under the terms of GPLv3, which seems to be the operative question.

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