file headers

[John Arbash Meinel]

Erik Bågfors wrote:
>>> 1) The "This software is under GPL v2 or later" means that I as a user
>>> can choose to use it at GPL v3 whenever I feel like it
>> I believe (IANAL) that 'I as a user can choose to use it at GPL v3 whenever
>> I feel like it' implies 'I can give it to you as GPL v3-or-later, even though
>> I got it as GPL v2-or-later' -- and of course you won't be able to go back.
> 
> Not sure about that....
> 
>>> 2) canonical cannot change the licence in any way unless I as a
>>> copyright owner gives them my permission..
>> ... I believe the very phrase 'or, at your option, any later version' is such
>> permission, though for a very limited change.
> 
> No, you misunderstand what I'm saying. They can't change the license
> in any way. It's currently under GPLv2+, and if they would like to
> change it to LGPL or BSD or ..... they can't.

Actually, they can't change the code that is already released. Correct.
You can't retroactively change the license.

But...
In the future they can chose to release the code under any license they
want. Including the Canonical Draconian Sell Your Soul License. I don't
expect them to do that, just as I don't expect the FSF to do such a thing.

> 
> Personally, I don't really care much about this, just want to know if
> I can say "Copyright Erik Bågfors" on stuff I create for bzr or if I
> should say "Copyright canonical"...
> 
> /Erik

I do think they want it to be Copyright Canonical, *because* they may
chose to change the license for all or part of the code.

Specifically, Martin just mentioned changing some of it to the Python
Source License. (Like if Python decided that some of the Test
infrastructure was generally useful, they may want to incorporate it
into the standard library, which would require a different license).

So they can change the license if they have the copyright. That is the
point of giving them the license, to make it easier to handle the code
base in the future. I've decided to trust them with my code, because I
think they are responsible people. I probably trust the FSF more, but
I'm okay with trusting Canonical.

John
=:->

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 254 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/attachments/20060225/9686261a/attachment.pgp