Subject: Re: GGPL license to GPL derivative From: Gerry Gleason To: Shigehiko SASAKI CC: vilb@u-aizu.ac.jp, georgedafermos@lycos.co.uk, turlif@turlif.org Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 23:04:17 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="------------090104020507010803050001" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.9) Gecko/20020408 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en References: <3DC13AB2.6060804@u-aizu.ac.jp> <200210312303.g9VN3Ul66877@henken.dekaino.net> If I may offer an answer. We are taking the long view with GGPL, it is not necessary that everyone is converted to the religion of GGPL for it to be successful. There are many who are willing to take this stand with us now, and promote GGPL to the fullest extent possible. The point is that this is not a religion, but a well thought out attempt at finding a consensus that sets the bar high in terms of sustainable community values. It can't be achieved all at once, and it will probably change over time on the basis of the community's understanding of what is important (probably to make it stronger and include more concerns). On the topic of GPL project ownership, what you say is true in principle, but as a practical legal matter there is one or several people who actually own the copyright. Linus can probably do what he wants legally, but if does not listen to the wider community of Linux kernel contributors, it could be trouble. We don't want to reinvent the wheel, and GGPL should be "compatible" with GPL, so we will be able to start new programs under GGPL and not worry about being "infected" by using GPL code with it. Also, we intend to respect all the contributors to GGPL projects, which may make for extending changelogs to give everyone credit, but it is all in the community spirit. I was skeptical when Dr. Vilbrandt first introduced the concept of GGPL to me, but when you take the long view, I think it really has potential. Keep in mind that just about everyone though Richard Stallman wouldn't be able to get anywhere with GPL in the beginning, and now look where it is. Gerry Gleason Shigehiko SASAKI wrote: >Dear Dr. Vilbrandt > > Thank you for your answer. I understand your stance. > >>The copyright holder of GPL code has the right to release his code >>under other agreements such as GGPL. If the copyright holder agrees to >>release under GGPL we will consider doing so, but only if it is clear >>that it is not in violation of GPL. >> > > That's right. > > I agree but I think it is NOT practical at all. Because copyright >of typical GPL code is held by a number of authors. You must obtain >all authors's consents to release their code under GGPL. If ONLY ONE >of them disagree, it cannot be GGPL. I know that number of copyright >holders is too large to change license GPL to GGPL. > > If I were a GGPL activist, I would write new codes from scratch. >It is the shortest path to spread the GGPL philosophy. Richard M >Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and other many GPL activists have done same >way. > > Why not GGPL?? > > There is no royal road to GGPL. > >thanks >-- >DEKAINO Project / Shigehiko SASAKI >ssasaki@dekaino.net > >