[geeklog-devel] GPLv3

[Dirk Haun]

I thought I'd post this before it even gets a chance of becoming an FAQ ;-)

Version 3 of the GPL is now official: <http://gplv3.fsf.org/>

So what could this mean for Geeklog?

As has been discussed before, it is impractical for us to change
Geeklog's license (I'm talking about 1.x here). We would have to track
every contributor down and ask them to agree to a license change - or
identify and remove/rewrite their code. An almost impossible task, at
least for us.

The only license we could change to is GPLv3, since Geeklog is released
under the GPLv2 with the "or any later version" addition.

So do we want to switch to GPLv3? What would we gain?

At this point - not much, I guess. It would only be a statement of
support for the new version of the GPL. That may change once there is
more software available that's released under v3 - especially if there's
something we want to include in Geeklog.

Note that I'm not saying we should switch - I haven't even read the
final revision yet. I'm just collecting the things to consider.

Also, we do have code in Geeklog that's released under other licenses.
Those are compatible with the GPLv2 but it has yet to be evaluated if
they're compatible with GPLv3, too.

The most notable pieces of code are the feed parser code, which is under
the ZLIB license, and FCKeditor, which is under the LGPL (I assume
there's an upgrade path for the LGPL, but haven't looked into it). 

We'd also have to double-check that there aren't any more licenses used
in Geeklog. Or that we have code that's under GPLv2 only (without the
"or any later version" addition).

Okay, that's all I have to say on that topic for now. Just wanted to
post this early.

bye, Dirk


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Geeklog Day at FrOSCon: August 25, 2007 - See you there!
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