Re: Overview of copyright issues

[Hans Aberg]

On 9 Sep 2009, at 23:14, Joseph Wakeling wrote:

> > As long as you use "or later", tivoization and other new  
> > restriction in v3 is allowed.
>
> No, as long as you use _GPLv2_, whether it's GPLv2 or later or GPLv2  
> and
> only GPLv2, tivoization is possible.  'GPLv3 or later' would not allow
> tivoization.

Right, but then the same problem arises if v4 prohibits fooization :-).

> > It is probably simplest to just make sure that the latest GPL is  
> > copied
> > into the lilypond sources by some semi-automated scheme.
>
> Unless you have an 'or later' cause already in place, or you have the
> permission of the copyright holders, you cannot unilaterally  
> substitute
> GPLv3 for GPLv2.  That's what the whole problem is about.
>
> I don't see much point in continuing this discussion further because I
> don't think you understand what the real problems (or solutions)  
> are, or
> what the requirements of the GPL (in any version) are.

The point is that if you want to be up-to-date with latest GPL in both  
new restrictions and permissions, the only way to do it is to refer to  
the latest version when the source is published. "Or later" will admit  
later restrictions, "or latest" will impose them quietly on old sources.

  Hans