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Rewrote paragraphs on additional permissions.

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Bradley M. Kuhn 2014-03-20 18:15:11 -04:00
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gpl-lgpl.tex
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@ -3096,7 +3096,7 @@ 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
@ -3122,14 +3122,17 @@ 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. 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\@.
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
\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,
@ -3139,25 +3142,21 @@ 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
2 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