diff --git a/gpl-lgpl.tex b/gpl-lgpl.tex index f4f65b1..e94e629 100644 --- a/gpl-lgpl.tex +++ b/gpl-lgpl.tex @@ -2548,8 +2548,110 @@ 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} + +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. We +consider 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 ethical and 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, section 7 answers the following questions: (1) +How do the presence of additional terms on all or part of a GPL'd program +affect users' rights? (2) When and how may a licensee add terms to code being +distributed under the GPL? (3) When may a licensee remove additional terms? + +% 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 +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 +whether the permission applies to the whole work or a part. + +% FIXME: rework this a bit + +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 +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 +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. + +\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 +additional permissions in other licenses do not raise any problems of license +compatibility. + +% FIXME: minor rewrites needed + +Section 7 relaxes the prohibition on further restrictions slightly by +enumerating, in subsection 7b, a limited list of categories of additional +requirements that may be placed on code without violating GPLv3. The list +includes the items that were listed in Draft 1, though rewritten for clarity. +It also includes a new catchall category for terms that might not obviously +fall within one of the other categories but which are precisely equivalent to +GPLv3 conditions, or which deny permission for activities clearly not +permitted by GPLv3. We have carefully considered but rejected proposals to +expand this list further. We have also rejected suggestions, made by some +discussion committee members, that the Affero clause requirement (7d in Draft +1 and 7b4 in Draft 2) be removed, though we have revised it in response to +certain comments. We are unwavering in our view that the Affero requirement +is a legitimate one, and we are committed to achieving compatibility of the +Affero GPL with GPLv3. + +% FIXME: minor rewrites needed + +A GPL licensee may place an additional requirement on code for which the +licensee has or can give appropriate copyright permission, but only if that +requirement falls within the list given in subsection 7b. Placement of any +other kind of additional requirement continues to be a violation of the +license. Additional requirements that are in the 7b list may not be removed, +but if a user receives GPL'd code that purports to include an additional +requirement not in the 7b list, the user may remove that requirement. Here +we were particularly concerned to address the problem of program authors who +purport to license their works in a misleading and possibly +self-contradictory fashion, using the GPL together with unacceptable added +restrictions that would make those works non-free software. + \section{GPLv3~\S7: Explicit Compatibility} + % FIXME: probably mostly still right, needs some updates, though. In GPLv3 we take a new approach to the issue of combining GPL'd code with @@ -2616,6 +2718,25 @@ 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}