Re: Forking and relicensing issues

[Ben Pfaff <pfaffben@pilot.msu.edu>]

Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> writes:

[...license omitted...]

   Now what I want to know is:

   a) Can I just replace this file with the GPL (obviously the copyrights
   in the files will remain intact and all work will be attributed to the
   original authors)?

It says you can, but I wouldn't.  Instead, I would include the GPL in
its usual file (COPYING), then add another file (LICENSE (?)) that
says something like "This software is licensed under the GNU GPL...
The authors are [authors]...  Copyright (C) [all the copyright dates
and authors...  Formerly, this program was licensed under the
following license: [give the entire former license]"

   b) Better yet, can I replace it with the LGPL being as this is a
   library?

No.  It says the GPL, not the LGPL.  On the other hand, if it said the
LGPL you could use the GPL since the LGPL has a clause explicitly
letting you convert an LGPL'd work to GPL.