Re: GPL "or any greater version"

[Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>]

> > However, this doesn't mean that a copyright holder who distributes the GPL
> > (version 2) with a prohibition on people distributing any other version
> > has granted other people the right to distribute at all.

On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 10:16:54AM -0400, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
> Whoah.  So you think that something distributed under "GPL v2 only" is
> undistributable?   Really?

That's not what I said.

GPL (both versions 1 and 2) include the statment:

   If the Program specifies a version number of this License which
   applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of
   following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any
   later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

In my opinion, the word "it" in this sentence refers to the Program.

In my opinion the bit that says <<and "any later version",>> refers
to later versions of the program -- in other words, what the license
elsewhere calls works based on the Program.

Thus, "GPL v2 only" triggers this clause of the license, and users may
choose to use GPL v3 instead (if the FSF has published one).

However, let's say the copyright holder distributes a program with a
copyright notice which claims:

   This program can be distributed under version 2 of the GPL, but
   not under any other version of the GPL.

Now, users have to distribute the program under the same terms they
recieved it.  But those terms include both a requirement that other
people be allowed to distribute under later versions of the GPL,
and a prohibition agasinst allowing other people to distribute under
later versions of the GPL.  Since the user can't satisfy both of these
requirements, they can't distribute it at all.

Do you see the difference I'm seeing between "GPL v2 only" and "GPL v2
with a prohibition on later versions"?

[Aside: I'm guessing that you're thinking that the second use of the word
"version" must mean "version of the license" rather than "version of the
program", and that the use of quotes around the phrase which contains
the second use of the word "version" means that there is some kind of
requirement that the quoted statement appear in statements about the
version of the license for this option to be valid.  Is that really what
you are thinking?  If so, think I can see why you're making the claims
you've been making.]

-- 
Raul