First draft of section regarding "or-later".

Includes labels needed for forward-references used herein.
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Bradley M. Kuhn 2014-03-16 18:00:34 -04:00
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@ -867,6 +867,69 @@ GPLv3 and its terms are discussed in detail in Chapter\~ref{GPLv3}.
\section{The Innovation of Optional ``Or Any Later'' Version}
An interesting fact of all GPL licenses is that the are ultimate multiple
choices for use of the license. The FSF is the primary steward of GPL (as
discussed later in \S~\ref{GPLv2s9} and \S~\ref{GPLv2s14}). However, those
who wish to license works under GPL are not required to automatically accept
changes made by the FSF for their own copyrighted works.
Each licensor may chose three different methods of licensing, as follows:
\begin{itemize}
\item explicitly name a single version of GPL for their work (usually
indicated in shorthand by saying the license is ``GPLv$X$-only''), or
\item name no version of the GPL, thus they allow their downstream recipients
to select any version of the GPL they chose (usually indicated in shorthand
by saying the license is simply ``GPL''), or
\item name a specific version of GPL and give downstream recipients the
option to chose that version ``or any later version as published by the
FSF'' (usually indicated by saying the license is
``GPLv$X$-or-later'')\footnote{The shorthand of ``GPL$X+$'' is also popular
for this situation. The authors of this tutorial prefer ``-or-later''
syntax, because it (a) mirrors the words ``or'' and ``later from the
licensing statement, (b) the $X+$ doesn't make it abundantly clear that
$X$ is clearly included as a license option and (c) the $+$ symbol has
other uses in computing (such as with regular expressions) that mean
something different.}
\end{itemize}
\label{license-compatibility-first-mentioned}
Oddly, this flexibility has received (in the opinion of the authors, undue)
criticism, primarily because of the complex and oft-debated notion of
``license compatibility'' (which is explained in detail in
\S~\ref{license-compatibility}). Copyleft licenses are generally
incompatible with each other, because the details of how they implement
copyleft differs. Specifically, copyleft works only because of its
requirement that downstream licensors use the \texit{same} license for
combined and modified works. As such, software licensed under the terms of
``GPLv2-only'' cannot be combined with works licensed ``GPLv3-or-later''.
This is admittedly a frustrating outcome.
Other copyleft licenses that appeared after GPL, such
as the Creative Commons ``Share Alike'' licenses, the Eclipse Public License
and the Mozilla Public License \textbf{require} all copyright holders chosing
to use any version of those licenses to automatically accept and relicense
their copyrighted works under new versions. Of course ,Creative Commons, the
Eclipse Foundation, and the Mozilla Foundation (like the FSF) have generally
served as excellent stewards of their licenses. Copyright holders using
those licenses seems to find it acceptable that to fully delegate all future
licensing decisions for their copyrights to these organizations without a
second thought.
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}
@ -2078,6 +2141,9 @@ So end the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License.
\section{GPLv3 \S 6: Non-Source and Corresponding Source}
\section{Understanding License Compatibility}
\label{license-compatibility}
\section{GPLv3 \S 7: Explicit Compatibility}
\section{GPLv3 \S 8: A Lighter Termination}
@ -2093,7 +2159,7 @@ So end the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License.
\section{GPLv3 \S 13: The Great Affero Compromise}
\section{GPLv3 \S 14: So, When's GPLv4?}
\label{GPlv2s14}
\section{GPLv3 \S 15--17: Warranty Disclaimers and Liability Limitation}