From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,d0f6c37e3c1b712a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII Path: g2news2.google.com!news2.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newsfeed.freenet.de!news.osn.de!diablo1.news.osn.de!news.ispa.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!not-for-mail From: Jacob Sparre Andersen Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Revocable or non-revocable licenses from AdaCore? (Re: AdaCore ... the Next SCO?) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:35:44 +0200 Organization: Jacob's private Usenet server Message-ID: References: <1151405920.523542.137920@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com> <1151434144.2179.36.camel@localhost> <1151965334.709372.227600@a14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <3Ryqg.368$Rk2.140@trndny04> <1152882713.304794.267470@i42g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <34r70ox8kc.fsf@hod.lan.m-e-leypold.de> <1153167224.590828.32290@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> <1153175027.628030.98470@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <1153220326.967685.309610@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 0x5552efa6.adsl.cybercity.dk Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: jacob-sparre.dk 1153222544 2038 85.82.239.166 (18 Jul 2006 11:35:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: sparre@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:35:44 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.110006 (No Gnus v0.6) Emacs/21.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:QOYiheEDGBzFC+i+dQoMlHYrTjA= Xref: g2news2.google.com comp.lang.ada:5760 Date: 2006-07-18T13:35:44+02:00 List-Id: Ludovic Brenta wrote: > - because license terms can change with the weather, or be different > for each licensee. They can even change after a licensee has had a > license for some time. > > This is true of all software, free or proprietary, cost or no cost. Not quite. GPL, LGPL and GMGPL are all explicitly non-revocable. AdaCore _cannot_ change a license after it has been given, if it is one of these three - no matter what they claim. > So basically, the user needs assurance about two things: who the > copyright holder really is, and what license terms are applicable at > any given point in time and for this particular licensee. If a file for a long time has been available for download from the copyright holder's own web site with a clear and consistent license notice, then I doubt very much that there is any doubt about which license you have it under if you have downloaded it during that period. > To give proper assurance on both accounts, I think that the > copyright holder should crypto-sign his software, and grant a > perpetual, non-revokable, immutable license to > everyone. Unfortunately, the GPL (GNAT-modified or not) is revokable > and mutable (think "or any later version"), so it is possible that > it not apply to all licensees. GPL is _not_ revokable. The "or any later version" clause is purely an option for the licensee, not something the copyright holder can use. Greetings, Jacob -- �Saving keystrokes is the job of the text editor, not the programming language.� -- Preben Randhol