On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Baptiste SIMON wrote: > I'd like to know how debian has relsolved the copyright question. In fact, > anyone which is releasing his software under something like GPL or LGPL is > able, if he is still holding the code copyright, to release a next release > under any other license.
I'm not quite sure the problem you're talking about here. Could you give a detailed example of the problem you're referring to? > I'd like to prevent this kind of problem without giving copyright to FSF > (because, I'm not the alone on my project). > > I'm interesting about how you've relsolved this problem. The problem I think you're talking about is: Author releases version 1 of a program under the GPL. He decides that he doesn't like the GPL, and releases version 2 of his program under licence-X (a DFSG-nonfree licence). Debian would, most likely, continue code development on the version 1 codebase, under the GPL. Version 2 would not be packaged (or it might end up in non-free is someone *really* wanted version 2 features, didn't want to write them for version 1 themselves, and the licence allowed inclusion in non-free). The original author would, most likely, be laughed at. If the author had accepted patches from others to version 1, he would be stuck with keeping later versions under the GPL unless he got a licence change OK'd by each of the contributors, or removed the contributed code. Note that, if the code was removed and re-written, the original author would have to be very careful, because he would be 'tainted' by knowledge of the original implementation. If this wasn't the problem you were thinking of, you'll get a much better answer if you can provide detailed information on the problem, with examples if possible. > note: I've not subscribed to your mailing list, so I would be pleased if > you can add my to Cc:. Thanks in advance. Done. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- #include <disclaimer.h> Matthew Palmer, Geek In Residence http://ieee.uow.edu.au/~mjp16