Re: [Savannah-hackers] savannah.gnu.org: submission of linux

[Jaime E . Villate]

Hi,
Sorry it has taken so long to answer to your project registration.

By restricting to version 2 only of the GPL, the Linux kernel continues to be
free software; there is nothing wrong in doing that. However, the FSF doesn't
want to accept that license in its hosts because it would be compatible with
GPL v2, but wouldn't be compatible with the next version. And this is
something that the FSF wants to discourage.

Are you sure you cannot change the "version 2 only" situation? Who would have
to approve that change? I'd like to discuss this further with you.

You are probably already aware of the following, but just in case
(or if you need another argument to convince someone else):
By accepting Savannah's policy of "GPL V2 or later", if a version 3
comes out nobody in Savannah would go and update the license information on
the linux project; it would continue to be "GPL V2 or later". And if a user
wants to abide by the rules of V2, because he/she finds it better than V3,
they can choose to do that. The copying permission statement gives them that
option:

  "...you can redistribute it and/or modify
   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
   (at your option) any later version."

Cheers,
Jaime

On Fri, May 31, 2002 at 07:10:24AM -0400, address@hidden wrote:
> 
> A package was submitted to savannah.gnu.org.
> This mail was sent to address@hidden, address@hidden
> 
> 
> Pavel Machek <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
> License: gpl
> Other License: Linux-kernel is under GPL version 2. Not v2 *or later*. And I 
> can\'t change that.
> Package: linux
> System name: linux
> This package does NOT want to apply for inclusion in the GNU project
> 
> Description:
> CVS-Mirror of Linus\'s bitkeeper tree. I plan to put 2.5.X here, first.
> 
> 
> Other Software Required:
> 
> 
> Other Comments: