Mateusz Loskot :: hacking on, working out, living up

Linus is right, it's idiotic

09 Oct 2009 | mloskot

I had to apply GPL licensing to a source code I was writing. I hit on gnu.org and started reading the HOWTO…bla bla bla…

either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version

IANAL, concerns and confusions started to spin my head around. Let’s ask the only and the bloody search engine used by 99.999% of the world human population. As usually Linus Torvalds succours:

The fact is, anybody who cares about the copyright license he uses on software (and I sure do care!) should never give a blank check to somebody else that they don’t trust to change that license for them.

Sound very reasonable.

  • ..or you trust the FSF implicitly. In this case, you’re not an independent entity, you’re just a lackey of the FSF when it comes to the license.

Sounds disturbing!

The FSF “generously and helpfully” suggests the most idiotic and the least advantageous option assuming that everybody trusts FSF. It’s just not right!

Hmm, paraphrasing Linus Torvalds’ famous statement: if your GPL-ed code includes or any later version in license notice, you shouldn’t be here. You should be in some mental institution, somewhere else.

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