Re: [patch V4 02/11] LICENSES: Add the GPL 2.0 license

From: Greg Kroah-Hartman
Date: Tue Dec 05 2017 - 02:36:19 EST


On Mon, Dec 04, 2017 at 10:19:29PM +0100, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> Add the full text of the GPL 2.0 license to the LICENSES directory. It was
> copied directly from the COPYING file in the kernel source tree as it
> differs from the public available version of the license in various places
> including the FSF.
>
> Philippe did some research on the GPL2.0 history:
>
> There is NO trustworthy version of an official GPL 2.0 text: the FSF
> official texts are all fubar (if only in small and subtle ways). The FSF
> texts should be authoritative, but then which one? They published more
> GPL 2.0 versions than most. So we would be hard pressed to blame SPDX or
> the OSI for having their own minor variant.
>
> Then in digging further, I found the ONE true original GPL with a file
> time stamp on June 2 1991, 01:50 (AM?, PM? unknown time zone?) ! in an
> old GCC archive.
>
> For the posterity and everyone's enjoyment I have built a git history
> of GPL 2.0 Mark1 to Mark6
>
> See https://github.com/pombredanne/gpl-history/commits/master/COPYING
>
> I also added a shorter history of the Linux COPYING text. The first
> version in Linus's git tree is based on the very fine and well tuned GPL
> 2 Mark4, the first fully Y2K compliant version of the GPL 2, as you can
> see from the diffs with the former Mark3: that was dangerously stuck in
> the last century.
>
> The current version in is based on a rare GPL 2.0 Mark5.1 aka "Franklin
> St", that I do not have in my history yet and spells "Franklin St."
> rather than "Franklin Street." Therefore there is likely another GPL 2.0
> version between Mark4 and Mark5 that I have yet to find and may not have
> been caught by the archive.org spiders. Here help and patches welcomed:
> this is likely an important missing link.
>
> Further information about this archaelogical research;
>
> http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CAOFm3uEzRMf261+O-Nm+9HDoEn9RbFjH=5J9i1C2GgMUg2G4LA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Add the required tags for reference and tooling.
>
> Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>