[mkgmap-dev] License issue in mkgmap & splitter source: GPL-2 (v2 only) incompatible with GPL-3 (v3 only)

Tue Jul 25 17:55:09 BST 2017

On 07/25/2017 06:53 PM, Sebastiaan Couwenberg wrote:
> Hi Gerd,
> 
> On 07/25/2017 08:11 AM, Gerd Petermann wrote:
>> as I wrote before I don't care much about the licence.
>> I have no idea what to change. Maybe you can post a patch?
> 
> What needs to change is the license header in the various files.
> 
>>From GPL-2 (only):
> 
>  *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>  *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
>  *  published by the Free Software Foundation.
>  *
>  *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>  *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
>  *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
>  *  GNU General Public License for more details.
> 
> To (GPL-2 or GPL-3):

The license text should be:

 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 or
 * version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 * General Public License for more details.

> Or (GPL-2+):
> 
>  *  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>  *  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
>  *  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
>  *  (at your option) any later version.
>  *
>  *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
>  *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
>  *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
>  *  GNU General Public License for more details.
> 
> I'm not the copyright holder of the sources in question, so it's not
> appropriate for me to provide a patch that changes the license.
> 
> Using GPL-2+ for all files in mgkmap & splitter would be best, as that
> also solves the issue when GPL-4 is introduced.
>> ________________________________________
>> Von: mkgmap-dev <mkgmap-dev-bounces at lists.mkgmap.org.uk> im Auftrag von Sebastiaan Couwenberg <sebastic at xs4all.nl>
>> Gesendet: Samstag, 1. Juli 2017 14:29:12
>> An: mkgmap-dev
>> Betreff: [mkgmap-dev] License issue in mkgmap & splitter source: GPL-2 (v2 only) incompatible with GPL-3 (v3 only)
>>
>> Several source files are licensed under the GPL-2 which is incompatible
>> with GPL-3 source in splitter.
>>
>> To combine GPL-2 code with GPL-3 code, the GPL-2 code needs to be
>> license under the GPL-2+ (v2 or later), or dual-licensed under the GPL-2
>> (v2 only) or GPL-3 (v3 only).[0]
>>
>> The mkgmap source files in question:
>>
>>  src/uk/me/parabola/mkgmap/filters/MustSplitException.java
>>  src/uk/me/parabola/mkgmap/reader/MapReader.java
>>
>> The splitter source files in question:
>>
>>  src/uk/me/parabola/splitter/tools/BitReader.java
>>  src/uk/me/parabola/splitter/tools/BitWriter.java
>>  test/func/ArgsTest.java
>>  test/func/Base.java
>>  test/func/SolverAndProblemGeneratorTest.java
>>  test/func/lib/Args.java
>>  test/func/lib/Outputs.java
>>  test/func/lib/TestUtils.java
>>  test/uk/me/parabola/splitter/tools/TestBitReader.java
>>
>> Steve & Gerd, can you relicense the code to GPL-2+ (v2 or later) or dual
>> license those files as GPL-2 (v2 only) or GPL-3 (v3 only)?
>>
>> This issue prevents the update of the mkgmap packages in Debian.
>>
>> Kind Regards,
>>
>> Bas
>>
>> [0] https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AllCompatibility
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Bas
> 

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