Re: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux
David Feuer (dfeuer@his.com)
Wed, 30 Dec 1998 15:11:36 -0500
Jeff Epler wrote:
>
> On Tue, Dec 29, 1998 at 05:35:39PM -0500, C S Hendrix wrote:
> > I didn't know you could custom-tailor the GPL to your uses.
>
> You can't.
>
> | 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Jeff
> --
> \/ http://www.freshmeat.net/ Jeff Epler jepler@inetnebr.com
> The distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly
> blurred by... the pollution of the language.
> -- Arne Tiselius
>
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As someone else said, that statement is _not_ in the GPL itself. It is
in the _recommendations_ which follow the GPL in the standard GPL-file.
It does not apply unless the programmer actually _makes_ the recommended
statement.
--
David Feuer
dfeuer@his.com
dfeuer@binx.mbhs.edu
Open Source: Think locally; act globally.
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