Hello Christian and welcome! There is a long story behind the change to the GNU licenses that you see today that I won’t bore you with, but you can get a summary here: https://spdx.dev/license-list-3-0-released/ (which has links to other related articles).
The license expression syntax still have the + operator which can be applied to any license, e.g., EUPL-1.2+ I think what you have identified is a situation where the license (EUPL) text defaults to having the option of “any later version” but if someone wants to override that, they must specify somehow explicitly. We do not have a “only” operator in the same way as the existing + operator. Somewhat ironically, this was the favored recommendation from SPDX-legal back in 2017 to solve the more explicit identifier concerns for the GNU licenses, but was rejected by the FSF as an acceptable solution. From my perspective, I’m not excited to do what we did for the GNU licenses for another license, but I may be biased by that prior experience. ;) Perhaps we should revisit the idea of adding a corresponding operator that, like +, can be used with any license? Thanks, Jilayne > On Apr 25, 2024, at 2:44 AM, Group Notification <nore...@lists.spdx.org> > wrote: > Subject: "-only" and "-or-later" identifiers for EUPL licenses? > > Hello SPDX LegalTeam, > > I am an RSE working at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) > in Potsdam, Germany. I am involved in working groups in Helmholtz that > deal with Research Software Engineering aspects, and am also the > maintainer of the Helmholtz Research Software Directory > (https://helmholtz.software <https://helmholtz.software/>). We generally > encourage the usage of SPDX > identifiers for software. > > I noticed that there exists one identifier for EUPL-1.1 [1] and EUPL-1.2 > [2] respectively, although the licenses specify that code can be > redistributed also under later versions of that license unless it is > explicitly stated otherwise. Here is an example from EUPL-1.2 (clause 5, > "Copyleft clause”): > > > If the Licensee distributes or communicates copies of the Original > Works or Derivative Works, this Distribution or Communication will be > done under the terms of this Licence or of a later version of this > Licence unless the Original Work is expressly distributed only under > this version of the Licence — for example by communicating 'EUPL v. 1.2 > only'. > > The GPL licenses are separated into "-only" and "-or-later" identifiers. > Is there a specific reason why this was not applied to the EUPL > identifiers? Would it be possible to replace the existing identifiers > with EUPL-1.x-only and EUPL-1.x-or-later identifiers? > > The EUPL-1.0 is not affected. > > Kind regards, > > Christian Meeßen > > [1] EUPL-1.1: https://spdx.org/licenses/EUPL-1.1.html > [2] EUPL-1.2: https://spdx.org/licenses/EUPL-1.2.html > > -- > Dr. Christian Meeßen > eScience Center > Tel: +49 (0)331 6264-1983 > Email: christian.mees...@gfz-potsdam.de > _____________________________________ > Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam > Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ > Stiftung des öff. Rechts Land Brandenburg > Telegrafenberg A70/320, 14473 Potsdam > > A complete copy of this message has been attached for your convenience. > > To approve this using email, reply to this message. You do not need to attach > the original message, just reply and send. > > Reject this message and notify the sender > <mailto:spdx+reject+9591030+1160316+5709541018789381...@lists.spdx.org>. > > Delete this message and do not notify the sender > <mailto:spdx+delete+9591030+1160316+5709541018789381...@lists.spdx.org>. > > NOTE: The pending message will expire after 14 days. If you do not take > action within that time, the pending message will be automatically rejected. > > Change your notification settings > <https://lists.spdx.org/g/spdx/editsub?id=2655529> > From: christian.mees...@gfz-potsdam.de > Subject: "-only" and "-or-later" identifiers for EUPL licenses? > Date: April 25, 2024 at 2:43:46 AM MDT > To: s...@lists.spdx.org > > > Hello SPDX LegalTeam, > > I am an RSE working at the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in > Potsdam, Germany. I am involved in working groups in Helmholtz that deal with > Research Software Engineering aspects, and am also the maintainer of the > Helmholtz Research Software Directory (https://helmholtz.software). We > generally encourage the usage of SPDX identifiers for software. > > I noticed that there exists one identifier for EUPL-1.1 [1] and EUPL-1.2 [2] > respectively, although the licenses specify that code can be redistributed > also under later versions of that license unless it is explicitly stated > otherwise. Here is an example from EUPL-1.2 (clause 5, "Copyleft clause"): > > > If the Licensee distributes or communicates copies of the Original Works or > > Derivative Works, this Distribution or Communication will be done under the > > terms of this Licence or of a later version of this Licence unless the > > Original Work is expressly distributed only under this version of the > > Licence — for example by communicating 'EUPL v. 1.2 only'. > > The GPL licenses are separated into "-only" and "-or-later" identifiers. Is > there a specific reason why this was not applied to the EUPL identifiers? > Would it be possible to replace the existing identifiers with EUPL-1.x-only > and EUPL-1.x-or-later identifiers? > > The EUPL-1.0 is not affected. > > Kind regards, > > Christian Meeßen > > [1] EUPL-1.1: https://spdx.org/licenses/EUPL-1.1.html > [2] EUPL-1.2: https://spdx.org/licenses/EUPL-1.2.html > > -- > Dr. Christian Meeßen > eScience Center > Tel: +49 (0)331 6264-1983 > Email: christian.mees...@gfz-potsdam.de > _____________________________________ > Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam > Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ > Stiftung des öff. Rechts Land Brandenburg > Telegrafenberg A70/320, 14473 Potsdam > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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