From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932111AbWATTp0 (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:45:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932119AbWATTp0 (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:45:26 -0500 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:11432 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932111AbWATTpZ (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:45:25 -0500 Subject: Re: GPL V3 and Linux From: Alan Cox To: Patrick McLean Cc: Stephen Hemminger , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <43D13B2A.6020504@cs.ubishops.ca> References: <43D114A8.4030900@wolfmountaingroup.com> <20060120111103.2ee5b531@dxpl.pdx.osdl.net> <43D13B2A.6020504@cs.ubishops.ca> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 19:45:10 +0000 Message-Id: <1137786311.24161.48.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.3 (2.2.3-2.fc4) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Gwe, 2006-01-20 at 14:34 -0500, Patrick McLean wrote: > I don't think the kernel is going to move to v3, it's licensed > specifically as v2, this is from the top of COPYING: It may well do, or bits of it may well do but it is rather early to speculate. > > Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel > > is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not > > v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated. > > Also, given that several of the copyright holders in the kernel are > dead, I don't think we will be able to obtain permission. It isn't clear that this will be a problem. Very few people specifically put their code v2 only, and Linus edit of the top copying file was not done with permission of other copyright holders anyway so really only affects his code if it is valid at all. What finally happens is going to depend almost entirely on whether the GPL v3 is a sane license or not and on consensus, and it is *way* too early to figure that out.