Copyleft/guide Changeset - 110f9ece935a

Changeset - 110f9ece935a

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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 10 years ago 2014-03-21 16:53:20
bkuhn@ebb.org

Rewrote paragraphs on additional permissions.

1 file changed with 19 insertions and 20 deletions:

gpl-lgpl.tex

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gpl-lgpl.tex

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 % FIXME: more about license compatibility here.
 A challenge that faced the Free Software community heavily through out the
 early 2000s was the proliferation of incompatible Free Software licenses.  Of
 course, we cannot make the GPL compatible with all such licenses. GPLv3
 contains provisions that are designed to reduce license incompatibility by
 making it easier for developers to combine code carrying non-GPL terms with
 GPL'd code.
 % FIXME: connecting text
 \subsection{Additional Permissions}
+\subsection{GPLv3~\S7: Additional Permissions}
 The GPL is a statement of permissions, some of which have conditions.
 Additional terms --- terms that supplement those of the GPL --- may come to be
 placed on, or removed from, GPL-covered code in certain common ways.
 Copyleft licensing theorists have generally called
  those added terms ``additional permissions'' if they grant
 exceptions from the conditions of the GPL, and ``additional requirements'' if
 they add conditions to the basic permissions of the GPL\@. The treatment of
 additional permissions and additional requirements under GPLv3 is necessarily
 asymmetrical, because they do not raise the same interpretive
 issues; in particular, additional requirements, if allowed without careful
 limitation, could transform a GPL'd program into a non-free one.
@@ ... @@
 With these principles in the background, GPLv3~\S7  answers the following
 questions:
 \begin{enumerate}
 \item How do the presence of additional terms on all or part of a GPL'd program
 affect users' rights?
 \item When and how may a licensee add terms to code being
 distributed under the GPL?
 \item When may a licensee remove additional terms?
 \end{enumerate}
 % FIXME: FSF third person, etc.
 Additional permissions present the easier case.  We have licensed some of our
 own software under GPLv2 with permissive exceptions that allow combination
 with non-free code, and that allow removal of those permissions by downstream
 recipients; similarly, LGPLv2.1 is in essence a permissive variant of GPLv2,
 and it permits relicensing under the GPL.  We have generalized these
 practices in section 7.  A licensee may remove any additional permission from
 Additional permissions present the easier case.  Since the mid-1990s,
 permissive exceptions often appeared alongside GPLv2 with permissive
 exceptions to allow combination
 with certain non-free code.  Typically, downstream
 stream recipients could remove those exceptions and operate under pure GPLv2.
 Similarly, LGPLv2.1 is in essence a permissive variant of GPLv2,
 and it permits relicensing under the GPL\@.
 \sectin
 These practices are now generalized via GPLv3~\S7.
 A licensee may remove any additional permission from
 a covered work, whether it was placed by the original author or by an
 upstream distributor.  A licensee may also add any kind of additional
 permission to any part of a work for which the licensee has, or can give,
 appropriate copyright permission. For example, if the licensee has written
 that part, the licensee is the copyright holder for that part and can
 therefore give additional permissions that are applicable to it.
 Alternatively, the part may have been written by someone else and licensed,
 with the additional permissions, to that licensee.  Any additional
 permissions on that part are, in turn, removable by downstream recipients.
-As subsection 7a explains, the effect of an additional permission depends on
+As GPLv3~\S7\P1 explains, the effect of an additional permission depends on
 whether the permission applies to the whole work or a part.
-% FIXME: rework this a bit
+% FIXME-LATER: LGPLv3 will have its own section
 We have drafted version 3 of the GNU LGPL, which we have released with Draft
 of GPLv3, as a simple list of additional permissions supplementing the
 terms of GPLv3.  Section 7 has thus provided the basis for recasting a
 Indeed, LGPLv3 is itself simply  a list of additional permissions supplementing the
 terms of GPLv3.  GPLv3\S7 has thus provided the basis for recasting a
 formally complex license as an elegant set of added terms, without changing
 any of the fundamental features of the existing LGPL.  We offer this draft of
 LGPLv3 as as a model for developers wishing to license their works under the
 any of the fundamental features of the existing LGPL\@.  LGPLv3 is thus  a model for developers wishing to license their works under the
 GPL with permissive exceptions.  The removability of additional permissions
 under section 7 does not alter any existing behavior of the LGPL; the LGPL
 has always allowed relicensing under the ordinary GPL.
 under GPLv3\S7 does not alter any existing behavior of the LGPL since the LGPL
 has always allowed relicensing under the ordinary GPL\@.
 \subsection{Additional Requirements and License Compatibility}
 % FIXME: minor rewrites needed
 We broadened the title of section 7 because license compatibility, as it is
 conventionally understood, is only one of several facets of the placement of
 additional terms on GPL'd code.  The license compatibility issue arises for
 three reasons.  First, the GPL is a strong copyleft license, requiring
 modified versions to be distributed under the GPL.  Second, the GPL states
 that no further restrictions may be placed on the rights of recipients.
 Third, all other free software licenses in common use contain certain
 requirements, many of which are not conditions made by the GPL.  Thus, when
 GPL'd code is modified by combination with code covered by another formal
 license that specifies other requirements, and that modified code is then
 distributed to others, the freedom of recipients may be burdened by
 additional requirements in violation of the GPL.  It can be seen that

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