Re: Plugins, libraries, licenses and Debian

[Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org>]

Glenn Maynard <g_deb@zewt.org>:

> Due to the GFDL debacle, I no longer trust the FSF's conception of
> "free" (eg. "similar in spirit") to my own software, so I'm not
> comfortable with the upgrade clause, and not using the upgrade clause
> will cause big problems down the road, so I'm starting to avoid the GPL
> for my own work.

So what do you use instead?

If you think your licence solves both the problems you mention, then
presumably you believe that your licence has a good chance of being
compatible with GPLv3 if GPLv3 turns out to be a good licence
(otherwise you might as well use "GPLv2 only"), and a good chance of
being incompatible with GPLv3 if GPLv3 turns out to be a bad licence
(otherwise you might as well use X11). To me this seems rather
difficult to achieve.

My current opinion is that it's best to stick with "GPLv2 or later"
and change to "GPLv2 only" if and when GPLv3 turns out to be non-free.

If people make it clear that they are ready to change if necessary it
encourages the FSF to be careful.

Edmund