PackageUpdater: silently changing license ?!?

[Todd Zullinger]

Tim wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 08:25 +0100, Kenn Thyrsted wrote:
> * Sat Jan 26 2008 Martin Sourada <martin.sourada at seznam.cz> - 0.6.2-1
> - New upstream. Patches merged into upstream
> - Update license to GPLv2+
> 
> That's what it changed to.  You could look into an older package, to see
> what the license used to be, if you've got an older one handy.

This is where looking at the package's history is really handy.
Fedora packages currently use CVS for maintaining the changes to spec
files and such.  You can browse the history of the gtk-nodoka-engine
spec at: http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewcvs/rpms/gtk-nodoka-engine/

The last change to the Fedora 8 spec file is at:
http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewcvs/rpms/gtk-nodoka-engine/F-8/gtk-nodoka-engine.spec?r1=1.9&r2=1.10

So, the license was clarified from GPL version 2, to GPL version 2 or
any later version.  (This seemingly minor distinction is important
because it allows you to use the code under the GPL version 3 if you
want to -- or if you need to in order to combine the code with some
other software that is GPL version 3 only or GPL version 3 or later.)

In this particular case, the license was clarified upstream (though
the distinction isn't terribly large, as the Fedora package maintainer
is also the upstream maintainer).  The change set showing where the
license was clarified as GPLv2 or later is:
https://hosted.fedoraproject.org/nodoka/changeset/9ceba709349a569bbd7fa0680652f849de5788cc

>> Needless to say, - i was rather surprised by the fact that licenses is
>> more or less silently changed.
>> 
>> - Does any of You know if this is "business as usual" in fedora ?

Often times, the license change is really just a clarification of the
license in the Fedora package.  Packages used to use a simpler set of
short names for various licenses (e.g. GPL for any GPL license
version).  That's problematic because there are incompatibilities
between GPLv2 and GPLv3.  There's a nice long page describing the
licenses which are acceptable for Fedora packages on the wiki:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing

HTH,

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
    -- Charles De Gaulle

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