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I believe license changes can be applied retroactively to all versions with the permission of all the copyright holders; I would assume this is what was done.
by jamesjporter 14y ago
I believe license changes can be applied retroactively to all versions with the permission of all the copyright holders; I would assume this is what was done.
- muuh-gnu 14y agoOnly if you still get it directly from the copyright holder. If you get it from someone else, and that someone got their copy under the terms of GPLv2, they still can distribute it under v2.
- tzs 14y agoThat is an unsettled question. According to the license itself, you cannot sublicense GPLv2 code. When you distribute a copy of third party GPLv2 code to someone, their license is coming from the copyright owner directly, not via sublicensing through you. If the copyright holder is no longer issuing licenses, it is not at all clear what would happen. The analysis gets complicated and speculative at this point. There are quite a few plausible theories, but it is going to take a few actual cases followed by appeals for any clarity to start developing in this area.