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

Tarkan Erimer
2007-06-10T08:49:25Z

Hi Neil,

Neil Brown wrote:
> On Saturday June 9, tarkan@netone.net.tr wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> As we know the forthcoming GPL V3 will be not compatible with the GPL V2
>> and Linux Kernel is GPL V2 only.
>> So, another point is, which is previously mentioned by Linus and others,
>> that if it is decided to upgrade the Linux Kernel's License to GPL V3,
>> it is needed the permission of all the maintainers permission who
>> contributed to the Linux Kernel and there are a lot of lost or dead
>> maintainers. Which makes it impossible to get all the maintainers'
>> permission.
>>
>
> You don't need the permission of maintainers. You need the permission
> of copyright owners. The two groups overlap, but are not the same.
> Dead people cannot own anything, even copyright. Their estate
> probably can. I don't think it is theoretically impossible to get
> everyone's permission, though it may be quite close to practically
> impossible.
>
>
So, does it mean we can change the license of the dead people's code ?