Choose Your GPL

Following some recent discussions on GPL versions, I did a bit of reading. The GPL clause under question is this -

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and “any later version”, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

This means -

• As a developer, if you do not specify the version of the GPL under which you release your code, a derivative work can be released under any version of the GPL
• If you specify “version x.y of the License, or (at your option) any later version“, a derivative work can be released under a later version of the GPL

Now, the GPL also says:

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

What does this mean? Theoritically, if you’d released a copy of your code under “version x.y of the License, or (at your option) any later version“, someday it might just become re-destributable under completely different terms.

Now, if you’ve released code without mentioning a specific version of the GPL, you can’t change the license (of code thus released) to a specific version of the GPL. As the original author of the code, you do have the option of forking a copy of your work, and releasing it under a specific version of the GPL.If your work involves other contributors, all of them will have to be party to this decision. IANAL.

Repeat after me - “I will choose a specific GPL version“.

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