4 ms·

Wait a minute, it’s possible to relicense something from GPL to MIT?

DrillShopper 2y ago
Yes. Generally you need permissions from contributors (either asking them directly or requiring a contribution agreement that assigns copyright for contributions to either the author or the org hosting the project), but you can relicense from any license to any other license. That doesn't extinguish the prior versions under the prior license, but it does allow a project to change its license.
prmoustache 2y ago
Yes if you are the only developper and never received nor accepted external contributions or if you managed to get permission from every single person who contributed or replaced their code with your own.
- computably 2y ago
  > or if you managed to get permission from every single person who contributed This makes it sound more difficult than it actually is (logistically); it's not uncommon for major projects to require contributors to sign a CLA before accepting PRs.
  - mrighele 2y ago
    That depends on how old and big is the project. For example Linux is "stuck" on GPL2 and even if they wanted to move to something else it wouldn't be feasible to get permission from all the people involved. Some contributors passed away making it even more difficult.
    - LeFantome 2y ago
      Not exactly “stuck” since they very explicitly do not want to move to GPL 3.
      - CaptainOfCoit 2y ago
        Even if they wanted to move to another license (which they don't), they wouldn't be able to do. So sounds exactly like they're "stuck", regardless of what they want.
  - prmoustache 2y ago
    These are the ones I refuse to contribute to.
  - bialpio 2y ago
    How is the problem of "you signed a CLA without authorization by your employer to do so" solved? I'm mostly asking because I saw the following: "I will not expose people taping out Hazard3 to the possibility of your employer chasing you for your contribution by harassing them legally. A contribution agreement does not solve this, because you may sign it without the legal capability to do so (...)" https://github.com/Wren6991/Hazard3/blob/stable/Contributing.md#changes-to-core-rtl https://github.com/Wren6991/Hazard3/blob/stable/Contributing... (this is I believe the repo with design for riscv cores running on RPi Pico 2)

Yes. Generally you need permissions from contributors (either asking them directly or requiring a contribution agreement that assigns copyright for contributions to either the author or the org hosting the project), but you can relicense from any license to any other license. That doesn't extinguish the prior versions under the prior license, but it does allow a project to change its license.

prmoustache 2y ago

Yes if you are the only developper and never received nor accepted external contributions or if you managed to get permission from every single person who contributed or replaced their code with your own.

computably 2y ago
> or if you managed to get permission from every single person who contributed This makes it sound more difficult than it actually is (logistically); it's not uncommon for major projects to require contributors to sign a CLA before accepting PRs.
- mrighele 2y ago
  That depends on how old and big is the project. For example Linux is "stuck" on GPL2 and even if they wanted to move to something else it wouldn't be feasible to get permission from all the people involved. Some contributors passed away making it even more difficult.
  - LeFantome 2y ago
    Not exactly “stuck” since they very explicitly do not want to move to GPL 3.
    - CaptainOfCoit 2y ago
      Even if they wanted to move to another license (which they don't), they wouldn't be able to do. So sounds exactly like they're "stuck", regardless of what they want.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  These are the ones I refuse to contribute to.
- bialpio 2y ago
  How is the problem of "you signed a CLA without authorization by your employer to do so" solved? I'm mostly asking because I saw the following: "I will not expose people taping out Hazard3 to the possibility of your employer chasing you for your contribution by harassing them legally. A contribution agreement does not solve this, because you may sign it without the legal capability to do so (...)" https://github.com/Wren6991/Hazard3/blob/stable/Contributing.md#changes-to-core-rtl https://github.com/Wren6991/Hazard3/blob/stable/Contributing... (this is I believe the repo with design for riscv cores running on RPi Pico 2)