Re: [Qemu-devel] [patch] s390-dis.c license

[Thiemo Seufer <ths@networkno.de>]

M. Warner Losh wrote:
> In message: <20080117223145.GI28842@networkno.de>
>             Thiemo Seufer <ths@networkno.de> writes:
> : andrzej zaborowski wrote:
> : > On 17/01/2008, Bill C. Riemers <docbill@gmail.com> wrote:
> : > > According to section 9 of the GPL, you would only have to contact
> : > > contributors for code which specified version 2 of the GPL and not later...
> : > 
> : > In order to relicense all of qemu, yes, plus contributors of
> : > BSD-licensed code, of which there is much more than GPLv2-licensed.
> : 
> : Actually, re-licensing BSD code as GPL is legal (but not nice).
> 
> No.  It isn't.  *ADDING* the GPL license to a 2-clause BSD licensed
> file is legal, but removing the BSD stuff is not allowed.  It must be
> retained, per the BSD license.

In strictly legal terms you are right.

With re-licensing I meant "adding GPL licensed parts to otherwise
BSD-licensed code", which technically retains the original license
but makes it practically unusable.

A similiar case arises when relicensing "GPLv2 or later" code as
"GPL2 only". The original notice must be retained, but it isn't
of much use in practical terms.


Thiemo