Re: [PROPOSAL] Disambiguate of Section 12.5, Deprecate GPL/LGPL symlinks
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007, Robert Millan wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 30, 2007 at 12:17:00AM +0200, Santiago Vila wrote:
> > + file. Packages should not refer to GPL and LGPL symlinks in
> > + that directory since different, incompatible versions of these
> > + licenses have been published by the Free Software Foundation,
> > + hence using the symlinks could lead to ambiguity.
> >
> > I disagree with this. It should be ok to point to the latest version
> > of the GPL if the program says "Version X or later". Many programs
> > do that, and we should not need to change them.
> >
> > Instead, I think we should amend policy in this way:
> >
> > Packages under a fixed, definite version of the GPL should refer to
> > the versioned GPL file in /usr/share/common-licenses.
>
> Good idea. Should we also specify that referring to the unversioned GPL
> is for programs that say "Version X or later" ? I think this is not obvious.
Obvious or not, it is, IMHO, the logical thing to do. If it needs to
be written, so be it.
What we need is a policy which works when GPL is a symlink to the latest
available version and additionaly makes clear what people should do
in each case.
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