LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Alan Kennington <ak1.linuxsa@topology.org>
  To  : LinuxSA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 00:00:54 +0930

Re: GPL blank cheque clause (was bsd- easier than you think)

On Sat, Jul 26, 2003 at 04:43:22PM +0930, Michael Martucci wrote:
> 
> >From Section 3 of http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html :
> ==========================================================
> 9.  The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
> versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new
> versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
> differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
> 
> Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the
> Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to
> it and "any later version", you have the option of following the
> terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version
> published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not
> specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version
> ever published by the Free Software Foundation. 
> ============================================================
> 
> ...So it is actually up to the author whether they decide whether or
> not they trust the FSF to really keep future versions in a "similar
> spirit" in a way desired by the author.
> 


Michael,

I'm trying to see how you come to that interpretation. Could you explain 
that more. The clause seems to directly contradict you.

The licence seems to be saying that the author must somewhere explicitly
restrict the licence to a particular version.
Therefore the licence, as it is, permits any version.
Most authors do not do so. Therefore my statement seems to be true.

This is the insert that programmers are asked to put in their software:

----------------------------------------
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
----------------------------------------
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html#SEC1

I've just looked at the last piece of software I downloaded. It's got this:

----------------------------------------
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
----------------------------------------

I've checked lots of linux kernel modules too. They almost all seem to
do the "later version" thing too.

So I think that my point was completely valid.
Most GPL programmers are writing a "blank cheque" for the FSF.

Cheers,
Alan Kennington.

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