3 ms·
"It is possible for a copyright holder to revoke a license. so there could be an important contribution living in the code base and then one day the author coul
by mcguire 5y ago
"It is possible for a copyright holder to revoke a license. so there could be an important contribution living in the code base and then one day the author could revoke the license and they would have to remove the code, and somehow prove their replacement was not infringing."
I don't believe that is true. A license is a contract; there are only two ways to revoke a contract: if the contract is illegal or if the contract provides terms to let you revoke it. If you publish software under the GPL, there is no way to revoke the license.
You could stop supporting the contribution in the code base and release alternate versions under different licenses, but the versions in the code base under the GPL remain available under the original terms.
- Macha 5y agoThe third is specific laws having specific terms that supercede the contract, e.g. discharging contractually obligated repayments in personal bankruptcy
- tzs 5y agoNonexclusive licenses granted without consideration are by default revocable. Fortunately, GPLv3 section 2 explicitly states that it is irrevocable. GPLv2 omits such language, so to make it irrevocable you are going to want to find consideration. You can probably whack it a few times with your promissory estoppel stick hard enough to get some consideration to bleed out of it. That's probably good enough to get irrevocability.