On Saturday June 9, tarkan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:So, does it mean we can change the license of the dead people's code ?
Hi,
As we know the forthcoming GPL V3 will be not compatible with the GPL V2 and Linux Kernel is GPL V2 only.
So, another point is, which is previously mentioned by Linus and others, that if it is decided to upgrade the Linux Kernel's License to GPL V3, it is needed the permission of all the maintainers permission who contributed to the Linux Kernel and there are a lot of lost or dead maintainers. Which makes it impossible to get all the maintainers' permission.
You don't need the permission of maintainers. You need the permission
of copyright owners. The two groups overlap, but are not the same.
Dead people cannot own anything, even copyright. Their estate
probably can. I don't think it is theoretically impossible to get
everyone's permission, though it may be quite close to practically
impossible.