[TYPO3-english] Releasing TYPO3 6.2 LTS under GPL Version 3

[Philipp Gampe]

Hi Georg,

IMHO & INAL ...

Georg Ringer wrote:

> and as FYI: It is really not easy to change a license as you have to ask
> *every* contributor since Kasper startet the project and if one is
> against it, the project fails.

Not true here, because we explicitly ship as GPLv2 or later. This allows us 
to move to GPLv3 or later without asking everyone.

It would be different if we would want to switch Apache v3 or even some 
other license.

Actually you never *change* licenses, but you *re-license* under another 
license. So the old license stay in effect for the revisions of the code.
Actually, every contributor can license its contributions under as many 
licenses as he want; that is why you can "change" a license by asking every 
contributor.

Regarding GPLv2+ and GPLv3(+): The GPLv2+ license *explicitly grants* to 
repackage the software with "any later version" of the GPL.
That means that anyone — with access to the source code — may legally ship 
the TYPO3 CMS source to a third party with the GPLv3(+) license.

No legal consultation needed here, besides whether this section of the 
GPLv2+ complies with the law. I never heard any doubts about this, thus I do 
not see any need for a legal consultation in this single mater.

What however could use legal consultation, is the mixing with different 
licenses, although for the major open source licenses (e.g. Apache) one can 
find legal investigations on the official homepages of those license 
organizations.

A more interesting question would be whether we *can or should change 
existing file copyright header*.

Another question is whether we *can or should change the years in the 
copyright headers* as those are needed to calculate the *expiration* of the 
copyright. Adjusting them every year — as we do currently — will lead to 
wrong assumptions.

> so it is not just about changing some text files and you are done.

Actually the actual changing of the text files results in complicated 
license questions, while changing the project license from GPLv2+ to 
GPLv3(+) is not a big deal at all.

Best regards
-- 
Philipp Gampe – PGP-Key 0AD96065 – TYPO3 UG Bonn/Köln
Documentation – Active contributor TYPO3 CMS
TYPO3 .... inspiring people to share!