Address changes in "COPYING"

Address changes in "COPYING"

[David Kastrup]

Hello,

the recent batch of address changes also affected a lot of "COPYING"
files.  Those now start with

		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
		       Version 2, June 1991

 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
                       51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

While the Free Software foundation is the copyright holder and thus
allowed to change this document at a whim, I think I remember that the
license with a corrected address was called something different, like
Version 2.01.  It is probably not the worst idea to keep this
consistent.

On the other hand, there is a _lot_ of software (including the Linux
kernel) around that may only be licensed under GPL version 2, so it
would be convenient if the address change did not count as a version
change.  After all, it occurs outside of the actual terms and
conditions.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Address changes in "COPYING"

[Lute Kamstra]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> the recent batch of address changes also affected a lot of "COPYING"
> files.  Those now start with
>
> 		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
> 		       Version 2, June 1991
>
>  Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>                        51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
>  Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
>  of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
>
> While the Free Software foundation is the copyright holder and thus
> allowed to change this document at a whim, I think I remember that the
> license with a corrected address was called something different, like
> Version 2.01.

I recalled something similar, so I stole the new version of COPYING
from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.  (Hence the strange
indentation of the address.)  I guess that is the official version.

Lute.

Re: Address changes in "COPYING"

[David Kastrup]

Lute Kamstra <Lute.Kamstra.lists@xs4all.nl> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> the recent batch of address changes also affected a lot of "COPYING"
>> files.  Those now start with
>>
>> 		    GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
>> 		       Version 2, June 1991
>>

[...]

>> While the Free Software foundation is the copyright holder and thus
>> allowed to change this document at a whim, I think I remember that
>> the license with a corrected address was called something
>> different, like Version 2.01.
>
> I recalled something similar, so I stole the new version of COPYING
> from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.  (Hence the strange
> indentation of the address.)  I guess that is the official version.

Ah, ok.  Got me worried for a moment.  My usual surprise about there
being intelligent life on this planet.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Address changes in "COPYING"

[Richard M. Stallman]

    While the Free Software foundation is the copyright holder and thus
    allowed to change this document at a whim, I think I remember that the
    license with a corrected address was called something different, like
    Version 2.01.

The way it was done is correct.  We do not change GPL version numbers
for legally insignificant changes such as this.