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Re: How does GPL3 stack up against KHTML/Safari exploitation?
From: |
Florian Weimer |
Subject: |
Re: How does GPL3 stack up against KHTML/Safari exploitation? |
Date: |
Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:56:53 +0200 |
* Alfred M. Szmidt:
> > For those who don't remembered the incident, Apple developed its
> > Safari based on KHTML's work, but Apple only distributed changes
> > in large patches with little documentation, and refused to allow
> > KHTML developer to look at the change logs maintained by
> > Apple. How does GPL3 licence prevent such kind of abuse,
>
> The GPLv3 does not require detailed changelogs. The requirements are
> even below those of the GPLv2. I suspect that this just reflects
> reality because most developers (not just Apple) did not pay attention
> to that part of the GPLv2 anyway.
>
> It also reflects the reality that such a requirement would most
> certaintly make the license a non-free software license: Sorry sir,
> you cannot modify this program without writting extensive
> documentation about what you did;
On the other hand, a piece of software can only be free if the
copyright status is clear. Documenting who has made changes and may
hold the joint copyright seems to be a necessary for that.