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SubjectRe: Article: IBM wants to "clean up the license" of Linux
On Tue, Dec 29, 1998 at 05:35:39PM -0500, C S Hendrix wrote:
> I didn't know you could custom-tailor the GPL to your uses.

You can't.


| GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
| Version 2, June 1991
|
| Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
| 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
| of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

So, I am not allowed to distribute my program with a license which changes
the first two lines to say "Jeff's Public License\\ Version 2, December
1998" and strikes the paragraph about using other version numbers.

In other words, the GPL is not itself covered by the GPL. (And, if it were,
which version would it be covered by?:)

However, I might be able to write the Gnu GPL in "COPYING.GNU" and in
"COPYING" (and elsewhere prominently) write that this software is
copyrighted under the terms specified in "COPYING.GNU" with certain
modifications. Thus, the document describing the GNU GPL isn't modified,
but I do describe the license I desire in terms of the GPL.

Jeff
--
\/ http://www.freshmeat.net/ Jeff Epler jepler@inetnebr.com
The distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly
blurred by... the pollution of the language.
-- Arne Tiselius

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