[Harmony-Drafting] Licensing the agreements

Walter van Holst walter.van.holst at xs4all.nl
Wed Jun 8 16:50:49 UTC 2011


On Wed,  8 Jun 2011 10:42:06 -0400, Eben Moglen wrote:

> First, as to fact, we should be clear about the copyright license on
> the GPL.  It is a pure "verbatim copying" license.  It doesn't say 
> you
> can make modified versions if you don't call them GPL.  It says
> "changing [the license] is not allowed."  (Historically, spontaneous
> compliance with this license has been near-perfect.  Over the last
> eighteen years, cases of unlicensed variant GPLs have occurred on the
> average less than once a year.  I have never been met uncooperatively
> when I requested that variant licenses be rewritten not to use
> extensively the precise language of the GPL.)

To my understanding of the discussions, it has always been te intent to 
narrow the number of variations down as much as possible. That 
notwithstanding, I would not be in favour of a "verbatim copying" 
license. Just using one of the optional clauses would be a non-verbatim 
copy and nonetheless completely within the scope of the intended use. 
Likewise, porting of the agreements should be possible as well, 
otherwise many projects that have chosen different jurisdictions as 
their jurisdiction of incorporation are less likely to benefit from our 
efforts.

Regards,

  Walter


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