[freeroleplay] Re: Descriptive vs. Proscriptive, frpgc.org vs. freeroleplay.org

  • From: Ricardo Gladwell <president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 17:37:14 +0100

Hi All,

Sorry for the lateness of my reply but it's been a hectic week. My discovery of RSS readers means I spend all my evenings catching up on my sites without any time to do anything else. Bad RSS reader! Bad, bad, bad. I will endeavour to respond to everyone's emails within the next 24 hours.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Havenner" <laveaux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2005 4:18 PM
Subject: [freeroleplay] Re: Descriptive vs. Proscriptive, frpgc.org vs. freeroleplay.org

Regarding dual licensing. The GPL states that although I can't release
'software' under more than one license, I can release different versions of
the software in parallel?

I'm not sure which bit of the GPL you are referring to here, but I think you mean section 6 which states "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein".

AFAIK the GPL doesn't prohibit the copyright holder from releasing under more than one license. Provided you own the copyrights, or can get special permission to re-license the copyright from the copyright holders, you can do what you like with your work:

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#ReleaseUnderGPLAndNF

The GPL restrictions you are thinking of only really properly kick in once you redistribute, modify or copy someone else's GPL'd copyright.

Let's see if I get this:

Progressive RPG v. 2.0 was released under CC as a downloadable text file. I
can't make that version GPL -and- CC, but I can make an identical version,
say Progressive RPG v 2.0b as GPL.

That approach would be acceptable but I think you can simply place both licenses in a single work with a notice clearly stating that the work is licensed under the terms of both and can be used either/or. Someone receiving the work (downstream users as we call them, in case you don't know) can chose to license derivative works or redistribute under one or the other, or both.

The FSF FAQ is unclear on this point (worth sending an email off to the FSF about this?). However, OpenOffice.org does something similar, see here:

http://www.openoffice.org/license.html

The license file in my OO.org distribution has the following text which could probably be used as inspiration for your own dual license statement:

"You may only copy and distribute this program consistent with the requirements and distribute this Program consistent with the requirements of either the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) or the Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL), respectively, depending on whether you elected to obtain access to this program via the GPL/LGPL Option or the SISSL Option. Copies of the GPL, LGPL and SISSL licenses can be found..."

Something like:

"You may only copy and distribute this document consistent with the requirements and distribute this Program consistent with the requirements of either the GNU General Public License (GPL) or the ShareAlike, ByAttribution Creative Commons Public License (SA-BY CCPL). Copies of the GPL, and SA-BY CCPL licenses can be found in appendices I and II respectively."

I hope that is clear. Any questions please do hesitate to ask us here.

Kind regards...

--
Ricardo Gladwell
President, Free Roleplaying Community
http://www.freeroleplay.org/
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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