Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing

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To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...>
Cc: Git Mailing List <git@...>
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 6:17 am

Linus Torvalds wrote:

Shawn posted the exact text. The spirit of that license is that anyone can
use an unmodified version of the library for whatever they want, but it's
illegal to link non-GPL software to an altered version of the library. That
is, the git community will get all changes back while other projects can
use the official version of the library without having to worry about
licensing issues. EvilCompany cannot make changes to the library and then
link non-GPL'd software to their changed version. They can do that if they
send their library changes upstream and then only use them once they're
considered "official" though.

As the original author, you sort of have veto here since everything core-ish
is derived from what you wrote. Iow, if you say nay, libgit2 with a non-GPL
license will only fly if index, tree, commit, ref, etc... manipulation is
rewritten from scratch. That will be hard, given that it can fairly easily
be claimed that the people most likely to do it are so heavily influenced by
the current code that it's impossible for them not to make a derivative work.

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231
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Messages in current thread:
git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Fri Nov 14, 4:59 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Kristian , (Tue Nov 25, 11:19 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, René Scharfe, (Thu Nov 20, 1:41 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Daniel Barkalow, (Sat Nov 15, 9:30 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Linus Torvalds, (Fri Nov 14, 7:13 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Sat Nov 15, 6:17 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Pau Garcia i Quiles, (Sat Nov 15, 6:28 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, David Brown, (Sat Nov 15, 2:53 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Sat Nov 15, 7:05 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Pau Garcia i Quiles, (Sat Nov 15, 7:33 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Sat Nov 15, 7:52 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Shawn O. Pearce, (Fri Nov 14, 7:46 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Linus Torvalds, (Sat Nov 15, 12:39 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Miklos Vajna, (Sat Nov 15, 8:39 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, David Brown, (Sat Nov 15, 2:49 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Junio C Hamano, (Sat Nov 15, 9:00 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Miklos Vajna, (Sat Nov 15, 3:33 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Pierre Habouzit, (Sat Nov 15, 6:12 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, David Brown, (Sat Nov 15, 12:30 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Shawn O. Pearce, (Sat Nov 15, 1:00 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Nicolas Pitre, (Sat Nov 15, 4:04 am)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, David Brown, (Sat Nov 15, 2:39 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Martin Koegler, (Fri Nov 14, 5:33 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Fri Nov 14, 6:56 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Martin Koegler, (Sat Nov 15, 1:13 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Sverre Rabbelier, (Fri Nov 14, 5:46 pm)
Re: git to libgit2 code relicensing, Andreas Ericsson, (Fri Nov 14, 6:57 pm)