🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan8.170541.19119@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:

   Sure they can, -- insofar as they explicitly reserve the right to
   revise the terms of the GPL, which is copyrighted in their corporate
   name, all they would have to do, is add yet another restrictive clause
   on the copying and modification of their software.

This is not so.  The copyright notice used on the software says:

  GNU Tar is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
  any later version.

Even if a later version of the GPL (say version 3) does the nasty
thing you suggest, you can still distribute under the terms of GPL
version 2.  "Version 2 of the GPL" is a static, unalterable, legal
document.  The later publication of a version 3 does not somehow
magically change the wording of version 2.

Moreover, changing the GPL in such a way would violate the terms of
the assignments people have made when donating sofwtare to the FSF.
(This is a legal transfer of copyright; merely GPL-ing does not cause
such a transfer.)  Those assignments guarantee to the author that the
FSF will distribute under terms essentially like those of the GPL.

--
Michael I. Bushnell      |     Watch, for you do not know when the master of 
+1 617 625 4518 (H)     -+-    the house will come, in the evening, or at
+1 617 253 8568 (W)      |     midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, 
mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu       |     lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.