Linus's license for linux says: "at your option, any later version."
The "you" there refers to IBM in the case at hand. IBM can make a
copy of Linux 2.1.132, fork their copy, apply any changes they want,
and distribute IBM Linux under GPL 2, the hypothetical GPL 3, or
any other GPL that the Free Software Foundation may write in the future.
IBM gets to distribute copies of IBM Linux on any terms they choose,
as long as it's compatibile with the license under which *they* obtained
the base linux. That's basic intellectual property law.
So if IBM obtains its copy of the base code under GPL 3, and then sells a
derivative work, and you buy a copy, IBM's license to you has to conform
to GPL 3.
If I were at IBM, I would be calling Richard Stallman with
a million-dollar proposal to BSD'ize the next FSF GPL license.
And if I were Linus Torvalds, I would take out that "at your option,
any later version" clause, it's a dangling pointer into storage that
somebody else owns.
Lastly, I do not mean to imply that the FSF ever *would* do something
like this. I'm just pointing out that they *could*.
(Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, but I went up against a good one in court
once, pro se, and I won.)
Michael Elizabeth Chastain
<mailto:mec@shout.net>
"love without fear"
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