On Mon, May 23, 2022 at 5:10 PM Thomas Gleixner tglx@linutronix.de wrote:
On Fri, Oct 29 2021 at 11:44, Luis Chamberlain wrote:
preferred. A summary of benefits why projects outside of Linux might prefer to use copyleft-next >= 0.3.1 over GPLv2:
<snip> > > o copyleft-next has a 'built-in or-later' provision
Not convinced that this is a benefit under all circumstances, but that's a philosopical problem. The real problem is this:
+Valid-License-Identifier: copyleft-next-0.3.1
and
+11. Later License Versions
- The Copyleft-Next Project may release new versions of copyleft-next,
- designated by a distinguishing version number ("Later Versions").
- Unless I explicitly remove the option of Distributing Covered Works
- under Later Versions, You may Distribute Covered Works under any Later
- Version.
If I want to remove this option, then how do I express this with a SPDX license identifier?
Probably off-topic but: I think as things currently stand in SPDX you would have to use an ad hoc LicenseRef- identifier to express the entirety of copyleft-next-0.3.1 coupled with an amendment that sort of strikes the later versions provision. This issue is also somewhat relevant: https://github.com/spdx/spdx-spec/issues/153
FWIW, built-in 'or-later' clauses are actually common in copyleft open source licenses; the GPL family is the oddity here. (Then again, the whole idea of a downstream license upgradability option is sort of unusual in the bigger scheme of things, but that's another topic.)
Richard