However, note that FSF gives herein the control of copyright holders to

decide whether or not to implicitly trust the FSF in its work of drafting

future GPL versions.  The FSF, for its part, does encourage copyright holders

to chose by default ``GPLv$X$-or-later'' (where $X$ is the most recent

version of the GPL published by the FSF).  However, the FSF \textbf{does not

  mandate} that a choice to use any GPL requires a copyright holder ceding

its authority for future licensing decisions to the FSF.  In fact, the FSF

considered this possibility for GPLv3 and chose not to do so, instead opting

for the third-party steward designation clause discussed in

Section~\ref{GPLv3s14}.

\section{Complexities of Two Simultaneously Popular Copylefts}

Obviously most GPL advocates would prefer widespread migration to GPLv3, and

many newly formed projects who seek a copyleft license tend to choose a

GPLv3-based license.  However, many existing copylefted projects continue

with GPLv2-only or GPLv2-or-later as their default license.

While GPLv3 introduces many improvements --- many of which were designed to

increase adoption by for-profit companies --- GPLv2 remains a widely used and

extremely popular license.  The GPLv2 is, no doubt, a good and useful

license.

However, unlike GPLv1 before it,

topics of copyleft licensing need to study both the GPLv2 and GPLv3 family of

licenses.

Furthermore, GPLv3 can is more easily understood by first studying GPLv2.

This is not only because of their chronological order, but also because much

of the discussion material available for GPLv3 tends to talk about GPLv3 in

contrast to GPLv2.  As such, a strong understanding of GPLv2 helps in

understanding most of the third-party material found regarding GPLv3.  Thus,

the following chapter begins a deep discussion of GPLv2.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\chapter{Running Software and Verbatim Copying}

\label{run-and-verbatim}

This chapter begins the deep discussion of the details of the terms of

GPLv2\@. In this chapter, we consider the first two sections: GPLv2 \S\S

0--2. These are the straightforward sections of the GPL that define the

simplest rights that the user receives.

\section{GPLv2~\S0: Freedom to Run}

\label{GPLv2s0}

GPLv2~\S0, the opening section of GPLv2, sets forth that the copyright law governs