From: Andrew Johnson Date: 2006-04-07T01:18:41+09:00 Subject: Re: GPL v3 and Ruby License. Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote: > > For your information, at the beginning of Ruby's license, we see: > > Ruby is copyrighted free software by Yukihiro Matsumoto > . > You can redistribute it and/or modify it under either the terms of the > GPL > (see the file GPL), or the conditions below: > > and the file GPL contains GPLv2, so you have no option to choose GPLv3 > automatically even when it comes out. Even though I have no objection > to GPLv3 unlike Linus right now, still we don't have any problem with > our current licensing. So I'd wait for few more years after the final > release to settle things down, then if we find no problem, I would > replace the GPL file to GPLv3. Be careful what you assume about the GPL. Consider clause 9 of the GPL file included with current Ruby: > 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions > of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will > be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to > address new problems or concerns. > > Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program > specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any > later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions > either of that version or of any later version published by the Free > Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of > this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software > Foundation. In other words, because the current Ruby distribution does not explicitly restrict itself to a specific version of the GPL, anyone can re-release or re-distribute current Ruby entirely under any published version of the GPL, including GPLv3 (when it comes out). cheers, andrew -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.