Re: Including the GPL in GPL code (Re: IETF and open source license compatibility)

Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> Fri, 13 February 2009 13:11 UTC

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From: Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org>
To: Pasi.Eronen@nokia.com
Subject: Re: Including the GPL in GPL code (Re: IETF and open source license compatibility)
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Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:11:44 +0100
In-Reply-To: <808FD6E27AD4884E94820BC333B2DB7727E7A18CBE@NOK-EUMSG-01.mgdnok.nokia.com> (Pasi Eronen's message of "Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:06:09 +0100")
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<Pasi.Eronen@nokia.com> writes:

> Simon Josefsson wrote:
>
>> Generally, however, I think this question is very different from where
>> this thread started.  It started, as far as I consider, with Stephan
>> suggesting that free software authors publish "free" (as in licensed
>> under a free software license) standards in the IETF.  That is not
>> possible, and is unrelated to the question we discuss here.
>
> BTW, why cannot a free software author license some particular
> standards text under both RFC 5378 terms, and some other license
> (a free software license, or even GPL)?
>
> Presumably, he/she owns the copyright, and 5378 terms are
> non-exclusive.  Obviously, for collaborative efforts this may require
> that all copyright holders agree, and that may make this unpractical.
> But I wonder if there was some other reason?

No, that approach works fine as far as I can see.  It has been used for
some documents, and parts of some documents, already.

That doesn't make the standard published by the IETF "free" as in free
software licensed though.  I admit this is a subtle distinction, and
given the discussion, I must have explained this poorly.

/Simon