[GRASS-user] GNU GPL version 3 and Grass code

[Markus Neteler]

(cc grass-psc)

On Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 09:54:00AM +1000, nicholas.g.lawrence at mainroads.qld.gov.au wrote:
> Patton, Eric wrote:
> > Patton, Eric wrote:
> > > With the GNU GPL version 3 scheduled to be released tomorrow, are there
> > > are plans on adopting this license for Grass?
> > >
> > > Frank Warmderdam wrote:
> > > > Eric,
> > > > Has it been approved by OSI yet?  OSGeo has taken the position that project
> > > > code will only be released under OSI approved licenses, and so I think
> > > > project adoption of GPL3 should wait for that process to be completed
> > > > by OSI.
> > > >
> > > > I asked OSI (via one director) about it a few months ago and they hadn't
> > > > started any serious review at that time.
> > > >
> > > > Best regards,
> 
> > From what I can see on the OSI site, they haven't approved GPL3
> > yet, but that's not surprising given it hasn't been officially
> > released yet. It might be something worth keeping on eye on if it's
> > the intention of the developers to adopt GPL3 at some point.
> > 
> > ~ Eric.
> 
> Is copyright on GRASS code held by individual authors?

In general yes.

> Or is the copyright transferred to the GRASS project itself
> when code is submitted?

No. We don't have copyright transfer. This was discussed a lot
last year in terms of an OSGeo contribution agreement.

> Or, to put it another way, does adopting a different liscence
> require the concent of every single contributor, or merely
> a decision by the project steering committee?

As far as I understand it, it requires the concent of every
single contributor *if* the new license is not compliant
with GPL. Note that most (all?) code contains GPL >= V2.
But GRASS-PSC is certainly involved in the decision.

> nick
> 
[ too long privacy statemente removed ]

Markus