AGPL, was RE: [vworld-tech] Modern MUD server design

[Alistair Riddoch]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 05:25:07PM -0800, Brian Crowder wrote:
> 
> Is there, perhaps, a URL describing this proposed change?
> 
> I'd like to give it to someone to freak out about.  :)
> 

Here is a link to a press release from the FSF about the Affero GPL.

http://www.gnu.org/press/2002-03-19-Affero.html

I don't think the FSF will post anything specific about the new version
of the GNU GPL until they are ready.

Changes to the terms of the GNU GPL won't and cannot be retroactive, so
software distributed in current versions won't be affected unless
someone chooses to to distribute under the new license. Normally
only the copyright holder has the power to do this, but the copyright
message that the FSF recommend contains the following wording:

   "This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version."

This means that anyone who uses this wording in the copyright notices on
their software has given licensees permission to choose a later version
of the GNU GPL.

Personally I am not entirely comfortable with the the new provisions
of the Affero license, and given that GNU GPL v3 may contain similar
provisions, I have chosen not to allow distribution of my game server
code under later versions of the GNU GPL until I can review those
later versions for myself.

With the exception of the quoted text, all of the above is my own opinion.
I am not a lawyer, so none of the above should be taken as legal advice.

Al
-- 
Alistair Riddoch
alriddoch at zepler.org
http://www.zepler.org/~alriddoch/
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