Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux

C S Hendrix (shendrix@escape.widomaker.com)
Wed, 30 Dec 1998 16:20:35 -0500


In message <19981230082452.A14213@craie.inetnebr.com>, Jeff Epler writes:

> | GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
> | Version 2, June 1991
> |
> | Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> | 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
> | Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
> | of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> So, I am not allowed to distribute my program with a license which changes
> the first two lines to say "Jeff's Public License\\ Version 2, December
> 1998" and strikes the paragraph about using other version numbers.

Wish I'd seen that earlier.

So to those that said just change it... :)

> In other words, the GPL is not itself covered by the GPL. (And, if it were,
> which version would it be covered by?:)
>
> However, I might be able to write the Gnu GPL in "COPYING.GNU" and in
> "COPYING" (and elsewhere prominently) write that this software is
> copyrighted under the terms specified in "COPYING.GNU" with certain
> modifications. Thus, the document describing the GNU GPL isn't modified,
> but I do describe the license I desire in terms of the GPL.

That was about all I could think of. Either that, or write your own
license and use that. You could copy the GPL, rewrite the ideas in
your own words, and issue the result as a license with the future
version note missing.

--
Shannon - shendrix@widomaker.com - InfiNet?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The trade of governing (and management, ed.) has always been
monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals
of mankind.  Thomas Paine"

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