Re: GIT license (Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: [ANNOUNCE] git-pasky-0.1)

Florian Weimer
2005-04-11T16:10:11Z

* Petr Baudis:

>> Almost certainly, v3 will be incompatible with v2 because it adds
>> further restrictions. This means that your proposal would result in
>> software which is not redistributable by third parties.
>
> Hmm, what would be actually the point in introducing further
> restrictions? Anyone who then wants to get around them will just
> distribute the software with the "any later version" provision under
> GPLv2, and GPLv3 will have no impact expect for new software with "v3 or
> any later version" provision. What am I missing?

Software continues to evolve. The copyright owners can relicense the
code base under v3, and use v3 for all subsequent changes to the
software. The trouble with relicensing is that you have to contact
all copyright holders (or remove their code). This tends to be
impossible in long-running projects without contractual agreements
between the developers.