Re: Changing a software license
On Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 03:20:08PM -0400, Matt Yanchyshyn wrote:
> Say I write some origianl code (that does not use any external
> libraries, programs or otherwise) and license it under the GPL or BSD
> license. As the original author of that code, can I change its license
> later on or it it legally locked to its original public designation?
The copyright holder is not bound by any license terms. You could,
therefore, release a GPL version, a BSDL version, and a commercial
binary-only version of your product in any sequence or even
simultaneously.
Where it gets tricky is when you start accepting other people's code
into the project. Since they hold the copyright on their
contributions, you will then have to either get them to agree to any
change of license (including application of the patch to versions of
the code which may be active concurrently but under different
licenses), have them sign the copyright over to you, or remove their
contributions from alternatively-licensed versions.
> More specifically, if
> this code is originally licensed as BSD and I decide to change it to
> GPL, will all those who used my code in their programs be forced to
> GPL-ify their work as well? Likewise, if I move from BSD to GPL, may
> developpers previously under the GPL restrictions start to take
> advantage of the BSD license's extra freedoms?
No. Unless the original license is time-limited, it lasts forever.
If you release v1 of your software under GPL and v2 under BSDL,
anyone with v1 still has it under GPL and only needs to accept BSDL
if they wish to move to v2. (And yes, they can redistribute as well,
which means that, if you make such a move, v1 would likely remain under
third-party development until hell freezes over or the GPL/BSDL holy
war is resolved, whichever comes first, whether you're interested in
that line or not. Kinda like ssh vs. ssh2 vs. openssh.)
IANAL, IASOHTMTSDBBSTS, YMMV, ET^H^Hetc.
--
When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists
have already won. - reverius
Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Tom Swiss
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