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Posted on 01/27/2006 6:48:14 AM PST by N3WBI3
Linus Torvalds has weighed in on the debate over the draft of version 3 of the GPL in a post on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) this afternoon. Torvalds says that the Linux kernel "in general" has always been covered under version 2 of the GPL, and that that isn't going to change.
Torvalds made the statement on the LKML to clarify the version of the GPL covering the Linux kernel. While many GPLed projects include the clause, "version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version," which would allow anyone to license code under the GPLv3 when it is finalized, the kernel does not. Torvalds wrote:
The Linux kernel has _always_ been under the GPL v2. Nothing else has ever been valid.
The "version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version" language in the GPL copying file is not - and has never been - part of the actual License itself. It's part of the _explanatory_ text that talks about how to apply the license to your program, and it says that _if_ you want to accept any later versions of the GPL, you can state so in your source code.
The Linux kernel has never stated that in general. Some authors have chosen to use the suggested FSF boilerplate (including the "any later version" language), but the kernel in general never has.
In other words: the _default_ license strategy is always just the particular version of the GPL that accompanies a project. If you want to license a program under _any_ later version of the GPL, you have to state so explicitly. Linux never did.
So: the extra blurb at the top of the COPYING file in the kernel source tree was added not to _change_ the license, but to _clarify_ these points so that there wouldn't be any confusion.
The Linux kernel is under the GPL version 2. Not anything else. Some individual files are licenceable under v3, but not the kernel in general.
And quite frankly, I don't see that changing. I think it's insane to require people to make their private signing keys available, for example. I wouldn't do it. So I don't think the GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel, since I personally don't want to convert any of my code.
> If a migration to v3 were to occur, the only potential hairball I see is if > someone objected on the grounds that they contributed code to a version of the > kernel Linus had marked as "GPLv2 Only". IANAL.
No. You think "v2 or later" is the default. It's not. The _default_ is to not allow conversion.
Conversion isn't going to happen.
Will this cause their stock to drop? :)
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It's also the first I've heard on GPL v.3
Methinks this is yet another attempt by RMS, FSF, and their buddies to perpetuate the age-old flame wars over GNU/Linux usage, etc. that has at times divided the OSS community...
Linus has never been an RMS lackey. RMS is an idealist, Linus is practical, and that makes them butt heads a lot.
Whoa--what happened to comments 6-12?
It is. RMS has made the GPLv3 very political from some of the things I'm reading about it.
The guy's just nuts. "His" OSS movement is really making ground and gaining alot in alot of areas, and he's letting it go to his head as if he had alot to do with it.
Linus isn't a pinko like RMS. It's diarrhea of the mouth when he speaks about how immoral proprietary software is. Linus isn't like that. He just wants to make good code and hopes that people will keep using it.
People don't care about if the code is open or not. People are all about productivity. That's it.
People are all about productivity. That's it.
That's exactly what got me started on Linux one year ago. I've very rarely had anything to grumble about--and even then, once I knew what I was doing, things weren't that hard to figure out.
I run my live cd on campus, and while I still can't get the OS to hook up to the campus network printers (tried using KDE's printer setup, LinNeigborhood, and looking through Samba), I actually prefer running Linux at school.
Ask n3wbie, I put up some undoctored pictures of Stallman and Torvalds but he still went screaming to his momma again. Some boys just never grow up.
You were referred to, but not pinged, in the previous post.
Your posts were deleted too. They should just delete all your worthless threads completely.
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