Re: RFC: stop doing "grand replace" updates to copyright years

[Wol]

On 15/02/2023 15:36, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> Code contributed to GNU LilyPond will*always*  be under the GPL.  You
> can't change the license afterwards.

Sorry. This is legal bullshit. If *I* contribute a file to lilypond, and 
*I* stick a *BSD* licence on it, the BSD licence does *NOT* give *YOU* 
the right to change the licence to GPL.

Even the GPL itself makes this extremely clear. It explicitly states 
that you receive your licence to GPL code - not from the person who gave 
you the code - but from the copyright holder themself. If the copyright 
holder NEVER GRANTED a GPL licence, how the hell are you supposed to 
receive a GPL licence?

You are correct that I can't change the licence afterwards. But if *I* 
*NEVER* licenced that code under GPL, then that code can NEVER be GPL.

So what you're saying is, I can't take someone else's BSD-licenced code, 
MAYBE add stuff to it, and add the result to lilypond?

Absolutely NO FLOSS licence I can name allows a licensee to change the 
licence. (One or two explicitly allow conversion to GPL, but I can't 
name them.) The GPL works, NOT because it changes the licence on 
everything else, but because it guarantees that by complying with the 
GPL, you are also complying with any other licence that it may be mixed 
up with.

Or have the people who curate lilypond made a point of actively 
rejecting any and all code without an explicit GPL licence? I would be 
very surprised.

First rule of copyright licencing. You cannot change the licence of 
someone else's code unless the original licence gave you permission. As 
I said, almost no FLOSS licence gives you that authority. So if the 
copyright owner put BSD, MIT, Apache, whatever code into lilypond, then 
that code REMAINS BSD, MIT, Apache or whatever. The lilypond BINARY is 
*effectively* GPL. I use the word *effectively* because it is under a 
mix of licences, but the only licence a distributor can use is the GPL. 
Because the GPL guarantees that, by complying with the GPL, you are 
complying with all the other relevant licences.

So the effect of the GPL is that we can safely behave as if lilypond is 
completely GPL, while the legal reality is completely different.

Cheers,
Wol