[Fsf-friends] GPL2 - GPL3

[Mani A]

On 7/9/07, Praveen A <pravi.a at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2007/7/7, Mani A <a.mani.cms at gmail.com>:
> > Suppose a package XX has a version-A under GPL-V2 and a forthcoming
> > version-B. Suppose also that version -B is a severe modification of
> > version-A. Now if version-B is to be released under GPL-V3 and suppose
> > the earlier version is also to be maintained for some time, then I
> > believe that the code from version-A would not be usable in version-B.
> > Or how is this migration handled ?
> >
>
> Only those who owns the copyright to the package XX can change the
> package version from GPL v2 to GPL v3. The same people (or those who
> submit patches to v2 only branch) can relicense the code from v2 only
> branch to v3.
That is ok. I should have added that that version A contains GPL V2
only code that is from elsewhere.
>
> I don't think it is a big issue, if you can make a v2 to v3 transition
> from A to B, then why not the patches?
It seems that is a problem. Back porting anything from B to A  would
be providing for treacherous computing possibly. So in this kind of
situation it makes sense to stop maintaining version A. If a patch is
considered for version A and that is relevant for version B, then it
should be released for version B alone.

Best

A. Mani

-- 
A. Mani
Member, Cal. Math. Soc