GPLv3 - under whose authority?

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nicolasc
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GPLv3 - under whose authority?

Post by nicolasc » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:32 pm

I just saw, that our new code/game/whatever will be released under GPLv3. Is there any special reason to do that, and who authorized this.

If someone wants to do a "license upgrade" the majority of developers (if not all of them) have to agree to this.

[edit]: I am reading the license itself, but I general I am more of conservative nature concerning this subject

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beni
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Post by beni » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:31 pm

Whoa, my mistake. I just downloaded the GPL without much thinking.

Actually it is not really a license upgrade, since there is nearly no source code and the only code we have I started with the GPLv3. But I'm open to any discussions. If people are not willing to write code under these circumstances we can change it back.
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nicolasc
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Post by nicolasc » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:41 pm

I was more thinking, if we take some code from the old-codebase, what would happen then...

I am more of a conservative in that case. (and still reading the license)

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nico
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x3n
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Post by x3n » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:20 pm

nicolasc wrote:reading the license
Woot? One can read that stuff? I thought it's only for testing the scrollbar...

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beni
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Post by beni » Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:28 am

x3n wrote:
nicolasc wrote:reading the license
Woot? One can read that stuff? I thought it's only for testing the scrollbar...
It actually is, but there are people out there (and those are much useful) who are willing to kill time to get those rules described in the license.

Important point: We're not allowed to copy code from old Orxonox to new Orxonox because we have the GPL 2 and not GPL 2 and later I think.
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Nowic
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Post by Nowic » Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:15 pm

A link about copying and linking gpl code: http://gplv3.fsf.org/dd3-faq (-> gpl compatibility matrix) Maybe it's useful for you.
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beni
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Post by beni » Fri Oct 26, 2007 4:11 pm

Thanks for this, Nowic. I'm not really good in finding out what is allowed or not. An easy Yes and No matrix is super.

I see. Even using as a library with GPL v2 only is forbidden.

How can I find out if it's the GPL v2 and later? I've never seen a license like that.

I think we're forced to use GPLv2 or later if Ogre is GPL v2 only licensed.
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x3n
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Post by x3n » Fri Oct 26, 2007 5:07 pm

don't forget ogre's licence (lgpl, no idea which version).
it has to be compatible with ours (i dont know if that could be a problem).
specially since we're modifying it.

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Nowic
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Post by Nowic » Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:04 pm

LGPL is less stricter than any GPL license and can be used in a GPLv3 Project. See compatibility matrix.
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beni
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Post by beni » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:12 pm

Well I'm not really sure what the general opinion is. We could use GPL v3 with Ogre, since it's LGPL, but I'm not sure about other libraries?
Besides Ogre we use enet (not sure about this "you can do everything" license), ODE (LGPL) and maybe others in the future. Is it save to say, that we won't run into problems when using GPL v3?
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greenman
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Post by greenman » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:25 pm

Hm
I don't really know much about licensing, but why shouldn't we keep just the old license ?
What would be the advantage of upgrading it to version 3 (except, that beni wouldn't have to downgrade his ;)) ?

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beni
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Post by beni » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:16 am

Well, since all code is new there is not "upgrading" but rather a "choosing". On the other hand IF we use v3, then we cannot adopt code from the old Orxonox. So probably v2 is better.

Well looks like I answered myself. I'd suggest v2 and later as a license, but I'm not sure if this helps us in any kind or if we should just use v2 like we did before.
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x3n
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Post by x3n » Sat Nov 17, 2007 12:50 pm

Yes, I think GPLv2 or later is the best option.

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