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Re: SSPL or server side public license, GNU better update the AGPL


From: Florian Weimer
Subject: Re: SSPL or server side public license, GNU better update the AGPL
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2021 08:23:18 +0100

* Jacob Bachmeyer:

> is the SSPL actually derived from the AGPL?

Yes, it is.

> If so, does the SSPL itself infringe the FSF's copyright on the GPL
> license text?

Yes, but the FSF has given a wide-ranging permission to create and
distribute derivative works of the GPL itself:

| Can I modify the GPL and make a modified license?
| 
|     It is possible to make modified versions of the GPL, but it tends
|     to have practical consequences.
| 
|     You can legally use the GPL terms (possibly modified) in another
|     license provided that you call your license by another name and
|     do not include the GPL preamble, and provided you modify the
|     instructions-for-use at the end enough to make it clearly
|     different in wording and not mention GNU (though the actual
|     procedure you describe may be similar).
| 
|     If you want to use our preamble in a modified license, please
|     write to <licensing@gnu.org> for permission. For this purpose we
|     would want to check the actual license requirements to see if we
|     approve of them.
| 
|     Although we will not raise legal objections to your making a
|     modified license in this way, we hope you will think twice and
|     not do it. Such a modified license is almost certainly
|     incompatible with the GNU GPL, and that incompatibility blocks
|     useful combinations of modules. The mere proliferation of
|     different free software licenses is a burden in and of itself.
| 
|     Rather than modifying the GPL, please use the exception
|     mechanism offered by GPL version 3.

<https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifyGPL>

I think this is clear enough, and it overrides the terms at the start
of the GPL.



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