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Who create the software has the copyright, right? Who has the copyright licence the software. But the copyright owner can also change it (the licence i mean) in incomptabile way? ...
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  1. 11-25-2005 #1
    burnit
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    Licence change and copyright.

    Who create the software has the copyright, right? Who has the copyright licence the software.

    But the copyright owner can also change it (the licence i mean) in incomptabile way? There is something missing to me, I don't understand...

    Is it possible, for example, change a proprietary licence to GPL, or a LGPL to proprietary licence? I mean that only the copyright owner do it, no everyone on the Earth.

    I post this question on this thread because normally programmers pay more attention on licencing questions. I hope someone can help me!
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  2. 11-27-2005 #2
    dafl00
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    Re: Licence change and copyright.

    For some reason I found this post interesting in a few levels..... so here we go....

    Quote Originally Posted by burnit
    Who create the software has the copyright, right? Who has the copyright licence the software.
    God, I would HOPE so!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by burnit
    But the copyright owner can also change it (the licence i mean) in incomptabile way? There is something missing to me, I don't understand...
    The owner of the software can abandon his/her open source license for a proprietary license and visa versa.

    Quote Originally Posted by burnit
    Is it possible, for example, change a proprietary licence to GPL, or a LGPL to proprietary licence? I mean that only the copyright owner do it, no everyone on the Earth.
    Yes, and I can't think of any country that will lash you for doing so.

    Just to clarify things also: One who owns the copyright for software does not necessarily own the actual license. For example the GPL is owned by GNU, and changing things around in the GPL and slapping it on your software as your license does not make it the GPL anymore.

    But then you have the interesting (if not incessant) question of: who owns the license for the licenses, and so on. But that's a different question altogether
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  3. 11-27-2005 #3
    Cabhan
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    I was reading something on the GPL site before, and this issue came up. The GPL is a license that the developer makes with his users. The developer may release under several licenses, or may change the license at any point.

    However, let's say that you release version 1.0 under the GPL, but change version 1.3 to a proprietary license. Code from 1.0 is STILL UNDER THE GPL, AND IS STILL TREATED AS SUCH.

    So just beware of that. But you can change at any point, yes.
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