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 GPLv3~\S7\P1 explains, the effect of an additional permission depends on

whether the permission applies to the whole work or a part.

% FIXME-LATER: LGPLv3 will have its own section

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\@.  LGPLv3 is thus  a model for developers wishing to license their works under the

GPL with permissive exceptions.  The removability of additional permissions

under GPLv3\S7 does not alter any existing behavior of the LGPL since the LGPL

has always allowed relicensing under the ordinary GPL\@.

\section{GPLv3~\S7: Understanding License Compatibility}

\label{license-compatibility}

A challenge that faced the Free Software community heavily through out the

early 2000s was the proliferation of incompatible Free Software licenses.  Of

course, the GPL cannot possibly be compatible with all such licenses.

However, 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.

This 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 software freedom respecting 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

additional permissions in other licenses do not raise any problems of license

compatibility.

combinations only if the non-GPL licensing terms permitted distribution under

the GPL and imposed no restrictions on the code that were not also imposed by

exceptions for certain kinds of combinations.

compatibility.  It formalizes the circumstances under which a licensee may

place additional requirements on the code, relative to the permissions and

requirements established by applying the GPL to the code.

existing practice of regarding such licensing terms as compatible with the

part may remove the additional permissions, in which case the broader

permissions no longer apply to the modified version, and only the terms of

the GPL apply to it.

extends the range of licensing terms with which the GPL is compatible.  An

added part carrying additional requirements may be combined with GPL'd code,

additional permissions, terms that impose additional requirements cannot be

Under subsections 7a and 7b, the requirements may include preservation of

copyright notices, information about the origins of the code or alterations

of the code, and different warranty disclaimers. Under subsection 7c, the

requirements may include limitations on the use of names of contributors and

on the use of trademarks for publicity purposes. In general, we permit these

requirements in added terms because many free software licenses include them

and we consider them to be unobjectionable. Because we support trademark fair

use, the limitations on the use of trademarks may seek to enforce only what

is required by trademark law, and may not prohibit what would constitute fair

use.

% FIXME: 7d-f

% FIXME:  removing additional restrictions

% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.

Section 7 requires a downstream user of a covered work to preserve the

non-GPL terms covering the added parts just as they must preserve the GPL, as

long as any substantial portion of those parts is present in the user's

version.

% FIXME: minor rewrites needed

Section 7 points out that GPLv3 itself makes no assertion that an additional

requirement is enforceable by the copyright holder.  However, section 7 makes

clear that enforcement of such requirements is expected to be by the

termination procedure given in section 8 of GPLv3.

% FIXME: better context, etc.

Some have questioned whether section 7 is needed, and some have suggested

that it creates complexity that did not previously exist.  We point out to

those readers that there is already GPLv2-licensed code that carries

additional terms.  One of the objectives of section 7 is to rationalize

existing practices of program authors and modifiers by setting clear

guidelines regarding the removal and addition of such terms.  With its

carefully limited list of allowed additional requirements, section 7

accomplishes additional objectives, permitting the expansion of the base of

code available for GPL developers, while also encouraging useful

experimentation with requirements we do not include in the GPL itself.

\section{GPLv3~\S8: A Lighter Termination}

% FIXME:  probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though.