Richard Stallman and the GNU project

Posted Oct 11, 2019 18:50 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
In reply to: Richard Stallman and the GNU project by mrshiny
Parent article: Richard Stallman and the GNU project

> If they're allowed to license the code as "V2 or later" then by definition they're allowed to license it as V3.

Who is "they"?

If "they" is Microsoft, then they own the copyright so by definition they can licence it as anything.

If "they" is Samba, then the GPL does NOT give them the right to licence the code, so they CAN'T licence it as ANYTHING!

What Samba CAN do, because MS licensed it as V2+, is to *distribute* it under v3.

This is what really grates with me all the time - people who don't understand the difference between the OWNER LICENCING the code, and the USER DISTRIBUTING the code.

Cheers,
Wol

Richard Stallman and the GNU project

Posted Oct 11, 2019 19:20 UTC (Fri) by mrshiny (guest, #4266) [Link]

I understand the difference. Microsoft contributes the code and retains copyright on the code, but they allow it to be used under the terms of a license, which grants extra rights over what copyright grants. But if they grant "v2 or later" then by definition they're granting v3 as well, which Samba can then use, and offer their users whatever GPLv3 offers.