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Re: Switching GAS to GPLv3

From: Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>
To: Jakub Jelinek <jakub at redhat dot com>
Cc: Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>, binutils at sourceware dot org
Date: 03 Jul 2007 07:42:48 -0700
Subject: Re: Switching GAS to GPLv3
References: <m3hcolsqe2.fsf@redhat.com> <20070703113243.GF4603@sunsite.mff.cuni.cz>

Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> writes:

> On Tue, Jul 03, 2007 at 12:00:53PM +0100, Nick Clifton wrote:
> >   I have checked in a patch to switch all of the source files in the
> >   gas/ directory over to version 3 of the GPL.  I will be updating the
> >   other binutils directories over the next few days.
> 
> What does this mean for backporting fixes from binutils trunk to older
> binutils releases?
> Does this mean backports are not possible at all, or do we have to
> relicense our legacy releases (that we want to backport stuff to) to GPLv3?

As far as I can see, the only issue that would arise would be if the
copyright assignment of the person contributing the patch specified
that the patch could only be used with GPLv3 or above.  Since the FSF
owns the copyright of any contributed patch (or the copyright has been
disclaimed), the FSF can release the patch under any license which the
copyright assignment permits.  And the standard copyright assignment
certainly permits GPLv2.

Ian

References:
- Switching GAS to GPLv3
  - From: Nick Clifton
- Re: Switching GAS to GPLv3
  - From: Jakub Jelinek

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