Projects/KDE Relicensing
KDE GPL v2.0 Relicensing effort
Why does it matter ?
A couple of KDE dependent projects or even libraries have moved or are going to move to GPLv3 (State of GPLv3 movement).
Unfortunately, GPL v3 is incompatible with GPL v2. This means that it is not possible to create a project linking GPL v2 and v3 code together. There is no problem for projects which are licensed GPLv2+ (version 2 or above).
A few parts of KDE are currently licensed as GPLv2 only. So far we have no reason to believe that this was something other than an oversight. However, we still need to validate with the individual copyright holders that a relicense to GPLv2+ or GPLv2+v3 is okay with them.
Therefore, in an effort we're trying to identify the contributors that have contributed under the terms of GPLv2 and where the "+" part was not explicetly mentioned. If we know that all contributors agreed to a relicense, we can go ahead and flip the license of the individual source file.
How can I help ?
By identifying a contributor who as contributed under the terms of GPLv2 (svn log of the file in question), and contacting him if he wasn't already contacted. Ask him the following questions:
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under GPLv2 to GPLv2+?
- Are you okay with relicensing your contributions done under LGPLv2 to LGPLv2+?
- Are you okay with the KDE e.V. deciding on a future licensing change to your code, should that be necessary?
Whats next?
Hopefully soon we'll have a list of affected files. If you checked svn log of all the affected files and all the committers there agreeed to the relicensing, choose the most liberal option available for relicensing the file. Document your change wisely in the svn commit log.
Current Reply List
- Please keep the list sorted by family name!
- Please only use "YES" or "NO"
| Name | GPLv2->GPLv2+ | LGPLv2 -> LGPLv2+ | GPLv2 -> GPLv2+v3 | LGPLv2 -> LGPLv2+LGPLv3 | KDE e.V. decides |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bastian, Waldo | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Faure, David | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Granroth, Kurt | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Martyn, Greg | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Moore, Richard | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Mueller, Dirk | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO |
| Sand, Espen | YES | YES | YES | ||
| Schlaeger, Chris | NO | NO | YES | YES | NO |
| Tapsell, John | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Trueg, Sebastian (Exception: K3b) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
Current TODO List
- Matthias Kretz
- Marc Mutz
- KDAB
- Tobias Koenig
- Matt Broadstone
- Matthew Woehlke
- Casper Boemann
- Craig Drummond
- Lubos Lunak
- Fredrik Hoeglund
- Daniel Teske
- Greg Martyn
- Alexander Kellett
- Dawit Alemayehu
- Oswald Buddenhagen
- Laurent Montel
- Alex Zepeda
- Thomas Leitner
- Robert Knight
- Stephan Kulow
- Lars Knoll
- Kevin Ottens
- Daniel Molkentin
- Simon Hausmann
- Maksim Orlovich
- Sirtaj Singh Kang
- Will Stephenson
- Karol Szwed
- Thorsten Roeder
- Joseph Wenninger