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"} ...
> That looks plausible grammatically, but still doesn't make much sense
> legally [we're waiting for clarification from the FSF on an aspect of
> that legal question].

It makes sense to me: the quotation marks indicate that the program
must specify that exact phrase. If it said "applies to it and any
later version", then I'd agree with your interpretation, but it's
talking about the phrase "any later version", not the concept of any
later version.

As Douglas Hofstadter put it, "playing with the use-mention
distinction" isn't "everything, you know". ;)

> The user still has the option of using GPL v2.
> How can this be phrased without making the option conditional on the
> version number?

I was thinking of something like:

"You have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
the version of this License which applies to the Program or of any
later version of the License published by the Free Software
Foundation."

It would be odd for the FSF to offer the option of *not* specifying
the "any later version" form of the copyright notice if it were
mandatory, and I can't think of a way to use the GPL in which you
could make it not apply to later versions of the software.

I'd certainly agree that it'd be nicer to rephrase this in future
versions of the GPL, though -- even if it's not ambiguous, it should
be possible to tell what it means without having a long discussion
about it!

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