Re: upstream has license which is an edited GPL

[Walter Landry <wlandry@caltech.edu>]

Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Stanislav Maslovski <stanislav.maslovski@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > I was going to package CDDE [1] but noticed that upstream ships it
> > with a license file which is GPL v.2 without the preamble and the
> > appendix 
> […]
> 
> > I have e-mailed the upstream explaining that changing GPL and
> > removing its copyright is not allowed
> 
> The copyright license on the document containing the GPL says:
> 
> =====
>  Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
>  of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
> =====
> 
> So, even if they preserve the copyright notice, they still may not
> redistribute changed copies of the GPL document. Only verbatim copies
> may be redistributed.

Not quite.  From

  http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ModifyGPL

  Can I modify the GPL and make a modified license?

    You can use the GPL terms (possibly modified) in another license
    provided that you call your license by another name and do not
    include the GPL preamble, and provided you modify the
    instructions-for-use at the end enough to make it clearly
    different in wording and not mention GNU (though the actual
    procedure you describe may be similar).

Cheers,
Walter Landry
wlandry@caltech.edu