Re: GPL "or any greater version"

[Adam Sampson <azz@us-lot.org>]

Raul Miller <moth@debian.org> writes:

>    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 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.

I suspect that's a pretty unusual interpretation, and I'd be quite
surprised if that's what the FSF actually meant. I'd understood the
first clause as:

  If the Program specifies {a version number of this License which
  applies to it} and {"any later version"} ...

This is consistent with the FSF's stock copyright and distribution
terms notice, which says "either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version"; that specifies a version number, and "any
later version".

It also wouldn't really make sense to phrase this clause as a
condition ("If...") if this applied to every use of the license --
they could just have said "You have the option of ...".

-- 
Adam Sampson <azz@us-lot.org>                        <http://offog.org/>