[postgis-devel] License conflict between PostGIS core and raster

[Sandro Santilli]

On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 02:54:13PM -0700, Bborie Park wrote:
> It has come to my attention that the license of the raster component is
> GPL3+ while PostGIS core is GPL2 only. The licenses are not compatible and
> as a contributor to the raster component, I'd like to see the removal of
> this conflict.

As all the copyright holders agreed already about the switch it's now only
a matter of updating the copyright notices, but double-checking the
conflict issue I found out that "PostGIS core is GPL2 only" was an incorrect
information.

As a matter of fact none of the "PostGIS core" source code files contain
a "version 2 only" specification. The standard header is:

 *
 * This is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU General Public Licence. See the COPYING file.
 *

That's it, no license specification. Now, the referenced COPYING file
is the GPL version 2, which under the section

  TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

has point 9, saying:

   9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
 of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new versions will
 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
 address new problems or concerns.

 Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
 Software Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version number of
 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
 Foundation.

The last sentence basically says that "PostGIS core" can be licensed
with _any_ version _ever_ published by the Free Software Foundation.

--strk;

  http://strk.keybit.net