[Bf-committers] Can BGE be relicensed?

[Tom M]

On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 11:21 AM, Sinan Hassani <[email redacted]> wrote:
> That makes no sense, the GPL is a copyright document. It works based on
> copyright laws.
>
> There is no "releasing something as GPL", you have to relicense code to
> GPL. To relicense code you need to secure the consent of all copyright
> holders.

'Releasing something as GPL' is licensing the code under the GPL,
offering a license does not transfer ownership.

> Saying that people paid to have Blender relicensed to GPL but without
> the transfer of copyright of the code, is like saying someone sold you a
> can of soda without the soda.

GPL does NOT do copyright assignment - the original copyright holders
still hold their interest, and to change the license requires their
permission.

Many organizations (ie FSF) require copyright assignment for code
integrated into their core code so that they are able to do
relicensing without talking to individual contributors.

> In other words, the "purchase of
> copyright" is part of the deal.

You appear to misunderstand copyright law?

GPL allows others to make derivative works and distribute GPLed code
under the terms of the GPL.

It does not assign copyright ownership to those who have received
copys under the GPL.

> So the original people that payed to
> have Blender relicensed now have or own code that is licensed under the
> GPL and they have copyright over that code.

The code was released under the GPL, code licensing is not the same
thing as code ownership.

> Now, I remember that Blender was relicensed with an option to "offer
> licenses outside of the GNU GPL":
>
> http://www.blender.org/BL/
>
> but the BF never makes use of the option. If that was the case, the BF
> foundation can choose to make Blender available under a different license.

Things are more complicated than that :)  Anywho this is all Tons
baliwick, as he is probably the only person with enough information to
comment (and he'd likely have to ask an attorney to make a definitive
statement).

LetterRip