3 ms·

Can't it be re-released under dual licenses? There seems to be plenty of other software out there that has done this.

alanh 16y ago
It depends on which license the code is in already and what each contributor allows. If you own the copyright, completely, you can license under virtually any license, ever, at any time. Period. But if you have an open-source project with tons of contributors, well, they licensed their work under the terms of a specific license. And in the case of the GPL, it explicitly means that their contributions CANNOT be redistributed under ANY terms that conflict with the “freedoms” guaranteed to end users, etc., by the GPL. However, you can at any time release a BSD-licensed work under the GPL. This is part of why the GPL is sometimes called “viral” — once it touches you, it’s hard/impossible to escape, see? So what would have to happen would be for everyone who ever contributed to VLC to say, “Okay, I’m chill with BSD,” and the code contributed by anyone who refused to do so would need re-written e.g. in a cleanroom to avoid copyright infringement. :-/
- duskwuff 16y ago
  > So what would have to happen would be for everyone who ever contributed to VLC to say, “Okay, I’m chill with BSD,” and the code contributed by anyone who refused to do so would need re-written e.g. in a cleanroom to avoid copyright infringement. :-/ And since one of the VLC developers has already invoked the GPL to prevent the distribution of an iOS version, the same developer would probably block BSD relicensing for the same reason.
jarin 16y ago
I believe that in order to do that, they would need to aggregate the copyright or get permission to change the license from each contributor. From what I understand, most projects that have dual-licensed have required contributor assignment of copyright from early on. Edit: Here's a good overview on it http://opensource.com/law/10/9/copyright-aggregation http://opensource.com/law/10/9/copyright-aggregation
rmc 16y ago
Can't it be re-released under dual licenses? In theory, yes. However you need to track down every contributor and get them to agree to the new licence. It's a logistically hard thing and might not even succeed.

alanh 16y ago

It depends on which license the code is in already and what each contributor allows. If you own the copyright, completely, you can license under virtually any license, ever, at any time. Period. But if you have an open-source project with tons of contributors, well, they licensed their work under the terms of a specific license. And in the case of the GPL, it explicitly means that their contributions CANNOT be redistributed under ANY terms that conflict with the “freedoms” guaranteed to end users, etc., by the GPL. However, you can at any time release a BSD-licensed work under the GPL. This is part of why the GPL is sometimes called “viral” — once it touches you, it’s hard/impossible to escape, see? So what would have to happen would be for everyone who ever contributed to VLC to say, “Okay, I’m chill with BSD,” and the code contributed by anyone who refused to do so would need re-written e.g. in a cleanroom to avoid copyright infringement. :-/

duskwuff 16y ago
> So what would have to happen would be for everyone who ever contributed to VLC to say, “Okay, I’m chill with BSD,” and the code contributed by anyone who refused to do so would need re-written e.g. in a cleanroom to avoid copyright infringement. :-/ And since one of the VLC developers has already invoked the GPL to prevent the distribution of an iOS version, the same developer would probably block BSD relicensing for the same reason.

jarin 16y ago

I believe that in order to do that, they would need to aggregate the copyright or get permission to change the license from each contributor. From what I understand, most projects that have dual-licensed have required contributor assignment of copyright from early on. Edit: Here's a good overview on it http://opensource.com/law/10/9/copyright-aggregation http://opensource.com/law/10/9/copyright-aggregation

rmc 16y ago

Can't it be re-released under dual licenses? In theory, yes. However you need to track down every contributor and get them to agree to the new licence. It's a logistically hard thing and might not even succeed.