Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3

Ingo Molnar
2007-06-15T22:22:51Z

* Michael Gerdau <mgd@technosis.de> wrote:

> > What matters is *my* intent in *choosing* the GPLv2, not *his*
> > intent in writing it.
>
> I beg to differ. By adopting _his_ license you adopted his view. [...]

ianal, but fortunately that's not what the law is. The license says what
it says, and that is what controls. The intent of the author (of Linus
and other copyright holders) is a secondary source of information /if
and only if/ any ambiguity of meaning arises (as determined by a judge,
not by you or me). But the opinion and intent of RMS (unless adopted by
Linus) is quite immaterial.

( there is a legalistic special-case. If any dispute arises over
what license the COPYING file in Linux itself (and only that file) is
under, then the intent of RMS matters too, but only for that limited
matter for that single file. Btw., the COPYING file itself is not
licensed under the GPL. )

Ingo