Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 23rd Jan 2006 19:22 UTC
Leading Linux developers are divided on whether the open source operating system should use the next version of the GNU General Public License. The first public discussion draft of GPL 3 was released last week. Over the weekend the Linux kernel mailing list started discussing whether this version could be used, as this may require a consensus among kernel developers.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Unlike the FSF, Linus never required an assignment of copyright when accepting submissions, and he's only been tracking the provenance of patches for the last year or so. There are literally thousands of people who have submitted code over the last few years. To change the license he would need to get permission from each of these developers.
Making life worse is the fact that there's no easy way of tracking who added which code thanks to the absence of source-control in the early days, and the various changeovers that have happened since.
More than likely, despite all the talk, the kernel developers will be forced to accept that they can't now change the license even if they wanted.