GPL and forking

[Teemu Likonen]

On 2009-02-13 04:39 (-0700), Aaron Toponce wrote:

> Ioannis Vranos wrote:
>>> I am writing a GUI front-end for a GPLv2 or later, perl script, I
>>> can't find the original author and I need to modify it, so as to
>>> work with my front-end.

> The beauty of the GPL is that you don't need the author's permission
> if you wish to take code, and fork. If you want to commit your change
> upstream, that may be a different matter.

Or more precisely: GPL is _the_ author's permission.

Copyright laws forbid things; GPL gives more rights.