Are software licenses version-specific?












11















When you put a license in your software, is it bound to all the versions of your software, or only a specific version?



If I have licensed my software version 1 under license A, and then I developed version 2 but want to apply a different license B, am I free to do so? Is version 2 explicitly or implicitly still licensed under license A?










share|improve this question























  • I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago








  • 1





    If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • @Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

    – Cyker
    2 days ago











  • It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

    – Brandin
    2 days ago
















11















When you put a license in your software, is it bound to all the versions of your software, or only a specific version?



If I have licensed my software version 1 under license A, and then I developed version 2 but want to apply a different license B, am I free to do so? Is version 2 explicitly or implicitly still licensed under license A?










share|improve this question























  • I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago








  • 1





    If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • @Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

    – Cyker
    2 days ago











  • It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

    – Brandin
    2 days ago














11












11








11


2






When you put a license in your software, is it bound to all the versions of your software, or only a specific version?



If I have licensed my software version 1 under license A, and then I developed version 2 but want to apply a different license B, am I free to do so? Is version 2 explicitly or implicitly still licensed under license A?










share|improve this question














When you put a license in your software, is it bound to all the versions of your software, or only a specific version?



If I have licensed my software version 1 under license A, and then I developed version 2 but want to apply a different license B, am I free to do so? Is version 2 explicitly or implicitly still licensed under license A?







license-compatibility version-number






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 2 days ago









CykerCyker

18316




18316













  • I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago








  • 1





    If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • @Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

    – Cyker
    2 days ago











  • It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

    – Brandin
    2 days ago



















  • I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago








  • 1





    If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

    – Brandin
    2 days ago











  • @Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

    – Cyker
    2 days ago











  • It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

    – Brandin
    2 days ago

















I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

– Brandin
2 days ago





I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I can't find the previous Q&A.

– Brandin
2 days ago













Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

– Brandin
2 days ago







Did you develop all of the software yourself (you own all the copyright) or are you including and redistributing other software or libraries (e.g. GPL software)?

– Brandin
2 days ago






1




1





If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

– Brandin
2 days ago





If you wrote everything yourself then this should answer your question already: Can I change license of my GPL project?

– Brandin
2 days ago













@Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

– Cyker
2 days ago





@Brandin Thank you for the link. But that question doesn't fully answer if license A still applies to version 2 in my case. What if license A has a term that says it applies to all the upcoming versions? I haven't fully checked all the popular open source licenses for such terms.

– Cyker
2 days ago













It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

– Brandin
2 days ago





It depends whether you wrote everything yourself or whether you included other licensed source code in your distribution. And if you included other open source software in your distribution, it depends on what the license of those open source libraries are (e.g. GPL).

– Brandin
2 days ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















26














Firstly, since you are the sole author you are (presumably) the sole rightsholder, so you aren't bound by the licence anyway.



Secondly, licences don't inhere in software, they attach to software through the process of conveyance. As the rightsholder, you may give one copy to Alice under the terms of GPLv2, and she may use it only under those terms. You may give another copy to Bob under 3-clause BSD, and he may use it only subject to those terms. You may give a third copy to Carol under a proprietary licence, and those terms will apply to Carol's use, and so on.



Thirdly, none of this applies to people who aren't the rightsholder; they may only do what they are permitted to do by the licence that applies to their copy. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2, users of that copy may do so only under the terms of GPLv2, which (inter alia) requires that further copies and derivative works be licensed under GPLv2. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2+ ("GPLv2 or, at your option, any later version") then users of that copy may do so under GPLv2, GPLv3, or GPLv2+; the choice of which they use is left to them; further copies and derivative works will have to be licensed accordingly. If you've licensed a copy under 3-clause BSD, that licence makes no requirement for the licensing of derivative works, so users of that copy will have considerable latitude in choosing how to license any derivatives they might develop.



And as ever, IANAL/IANYL.






share|improve this answer
























  • The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

    – mckenzm
    yesterday



















6














As I understand it (I am not a Lawyer)



A license is a grant of permission from the copyright holder(s). Licenses may be given/sold to an individual user or (as is the case with FOSS licenses) offered to anyone who receives a copy of the work.



If the work is purely yours then you are free to release new versions under whatever license you like.



The tricky bit comes when you start accepting contributions from the community. Absent evidence to the contrary the normal assumption is that copyright of such contributions remains with their authors and the contributions are released under the same license as the project they are contributed to.



The end result of this is that a project like the Linux kernel is virtually impossible to re-license. The terms of GPLv2 require derivatives to be released under the same license terms and the list of copyright holders is way too large to make getting permission from all of them a practical proposition.



Many projects have "or any later version" clauses in their licensing statements. This allows the author of the license to release new versions of the license and then the projects covered by such clauses can move up to newer versions because they have (implied) permission from their contributors to use the code under "any later version" of the license.



Many projects also have some form of "contributor agreement" where contributors agree to either hand over copyright of their contributions to the organisation that created the project or agree to grant the organisation that created the project permission to use the contributions without the normal licensing restrictions and hence to re-license the project as a whole.



Such asymmetric arrangements are of course controversial, especially when there are proprietary releases involved.






share|improve this answer


























  • Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

    – Cyker
    yesterday






  • 1





    I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

    – Peter Green
    yesterday











  • (to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

    – Peter Green
    yesterday






  • 2





    @Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

    – bta
    yesterday











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2 Answers
2






active

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2 Answers
2






active

oldest

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active

oldest

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active

oldest

votes









26














Firstly, since you are the sole author you are (presumably) the sole rightsholder, so you aren't bound by the licence anyway.



Secondly, licences don't inhere in software, they attach to software through the process of conveyance. As the rightsholder, you may give one copy to Alice under the terms of GPLv2, and she may use it only under those terms. You may give another copy to Bob under 3-clause BSD, and he may use it only subject to those terms. You may give a third copy to Carol under a proprietary licence, and those terms will apply to Carol's use, and so on.



Thirdly, none of this applies to people who aren't the rightsholder; they may only do what they are permitted to do by the licence that applies to their copy. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2, users of that copy may do so only under the terms of GPLv2, which (inter alia) requires that further copies and derivative works be licensed under GPLv2. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2+ ("GPLv2 or, at your option, any later version") then users of that copy may do so under GPLv2, GPLv3, or GPLv2+; the choice of which they use is left to them; further copies and derivative works will have to be licensed accordingly. If you've licensed a copy under 3-clause BSD, that licence makes no requirement for the licensing of derivative works, so users of that copy will have considerable latitude in choosing how to license any derivatives they might develop.



And as ever, IANAL/IANYL.






share|improve this answer
























  • The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

    – mckenzm
    yesterday
















26














Firstly, since you are the sole author you are (presumably) the sole rightsholder, so you aren't bound by the licence anyway.



Secondly, licences don't inhere in software, they attach to software through the process of conveyance. As the rightsholder, you may give one copy to Alice under the terms of GPLv2, and she may use it only under those terms. You may give another copy to Bob under 3-clause BSD, and he may use it only subject to those terms. You may give a third copy to Carol under a proprietary licence, and those terms will apply to Carol's use, and so on.



Thirdly, none of this applies to people who aren't the rightsholder; they may only do what they are permitted to do by the licence that applies to their copy. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2, users of that copy may do so only under the terms of GPLv2, which (inter alia) requires that further copies and derivative works be licensed under GPLv2. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2+ ("GPLv2 or, at your option, any later version") then users of that copy may do so under GPLv2, GPLv3, or GPLv2+; the choice of which they use is left to them; further copies and derivative works will have to be licensed accordingly. If you've licensed a copy under 3-clause BSD, that licence makes no requirement for the licensing of derivative works, so users of that copy will have considerable latitude in choosing how to license any derivatives they might develop.



And as ever, IANAL/IANYL.






share|improve this answer
























  • The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

    – mckenzm
    yesterday














26












26








26







Firstly, since you are the sole author you are (presumably) the sole rightsholder, so you aren't bound by the licence anyway.



Secondly, licences don't inhere in software, they attach to software through the process of conveyance. As the rightsholder, you may give one copy to Alice under the terms of GPLv2, and she may use it only under those terms. You may give another copy to Bob under 3-clause BSD, and he may use it only subject to those terms. You may give a third copy to Carol under a proprietary licence, and those terms will apply to Carol's use, and so on.



Thirdly, none of this applies to people who aren't the rightsholder; they may only do what they are permitted to do by the licence that applies to their copy. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2, users of that copy may do so only under the terms of GPLv2, which (inter alia) requires that further copies and derivative works be licensed under GPLv2. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2+ ("GPLv2 or, at your option, any later version") then users of that copy may do so under GPLv2, GPLv3, or GPLv2+; the choice of which they use is left to them; further copies and derivative works will have to be licensed accordingly. If you've licensed a copy under 3-clause BSD, that licence makes no requirement for the licensing of derivative works, so users of that copy will have considerable latitude in choosing how to license any derivatives they might develop.



And as ever, IANAL/IANYL.






share|improve this answer













Firstly, since you are the sole author you are (presumably) the sole rightsholder, so you aren't bound by the licence anyway.



Secondly, licences don't inhere in software, they attach to software through the process of conveyance. As the rightsholder, you may give one copy to Alice under the terms of GPLv2, and she may use it only under those terms. You may give another copy to Bob under 3-clause BSD, and he may use it only subject to those terms. You may give a third copy to Carol under a proprietary licence, and those terms will apply to Carol's use, and so on.



Thirdly, none of this applies to people who aren't the rightsholder; they may only do what they are permitted to do by the licence that applies to their copy. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2, users of that copy may do so only under the terms of GPLv2, which (inter alia) requires that further copies and derivative works be licensed under GPLv2. If you've licensed a copy under GPLv2+ ("GPLv2 or, at your option, any later version") then users of that copy may do so under GPLv2, GPLv3, or GPLv2+; the choice of which they use is left to them; further copies and derivative works will have to be licensed accordingly. If you've licensed a copy under 3-clause BSD, that licence makes no requirement for the licensing of derivative works, so users of that copy will have considerable latitude in choosing how to license any derivatives they might develop.



And as ever, IANAL/IANYL.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 2 days ago









MadHatterMadHatter

8,3651735




8,3651735













  • The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

    – mckenzm
    yesterday



















  • The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

    – mckenzm
    yesterday

















The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

– mckenzm
yesterday





The OP may actually want to be binding someone else. It can easily vary by version. Java 11 is radically different to Java 5.

– mckenzm
yesterday











6














As I understand it (I am not a Lawyer)



A license is a grant of permission from the copyright holder(s). Licenses may be given/sold to an individual user or (as is the case with FOSS licenses) offered to anyone who receives a copy of the work.



If the work is purely yours then you are free to release new versions under whatever license you like.



The tricky bit comes when you start accepting contributions from the community. Absent evidence to the contrary the normal assumption is that copyright of such contributions remains with their authors and the contributions are released under the same license as the project they are contributed to.



The end result of this is that a project like the Linux kernel is virtually impossible to re-license. The terms of GPLv2 require derivatives to be released under the same license terms and the list of copyright holders is way too large to make getting permission from all of them a practical proposition.



Many projects have "or any later version" clauses in their licensing statements. This allows the author of the license to release new versions of the license and then the projects covered by such clauses can move up to newer versions because they have (implied) permission from their contributors to use the code under "any later version" of the license.



Many projects also have some form of "contributor agreement" where contributors agree to either hand over copyright of their contributions to the organisation that created the project or agree to grant the organisation that created the project permission to use the contributions without the normal licensing restrictions and hence to re-license the project as a whole.



Such asymmetric arrangements are of course controversial, especially when there are proprietary releases involved.






share|improve this answer


























  • Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

    – Cyker
    yesterday






  • 1





    I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

    – Peter Green
    yesterday











  • (to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

    – Peter Green
    yesterday






  • 2





    @Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

    – bta
    yesterday
















6














As I understand it (I am not a Lawyer)



A license is a grant of permission from the copyright holder(s). Licenses may be given/sold to an individual user or (as is the case with FOSS licenses) offered to anyone who receives a copy of the work.



If the work is purely yours then you are free to release new versions under whatever license you like.



The tricky bit comes when you start accepting contributions from the community. Absent evidence to the contrary the normal assumption is that copyright of such contributions remains with their authors and the contributions are released under the same license as the project they are contributed to.



The end result of this is that a project like the Linux kernel is virtually impossible to re-license. The terms of GPLv2 require derivatives to be released under the same license terms and the list of copyright holders is way too large to make getting permission from all of them a practical proposition.



Many projects have "or any later version" clauses in their licensing statements. This allows the author of the license to release new versions of the license and then the projects covered by such clauses can move up to newer versions because they have (implied) permission from their contributors to use the code under "any later version" of the license.



Many projects also have some form of "contributor agreement" where contributors agree to either hand over copyright of their contributions to the organisation that created the project or agree to grant the organisation that created the project permission to use the contributions without the normal licensing restrictions and hence to re-license the project as a whole.



Such asymmetric arrangements are of course controversial, especially when there are proprietary releases involved.






share|improve this answer


























  • Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

    – Cyker
    yesterday






  • 1





    I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

    – Peter Green
    yesterday











  • (to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

    – Peter Green
    yesterday






  • 2





    @Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

    – bta
    yesterday














6












6








6







As I understand it (I am not a Lawyer)



A license is a grant of permission from the copyright holder(s). Licenses may be given/sold to an individual user or (as is the case with FOSS licenses) offered to anyone who receives a copy of the work.



If the work is purely yours then you are free to release new versions under whatever license you like.



The tricky bit comes when you start accepting contributions from the community. Absent evidence to the contrary the normal assumption is that copyright of such contributions remains with their authors and the contributions are released under the same license as the project they are contributed to.



The end result of this is that a project like the Linux kernel is virtually impossible to re-license. The terms of GPLv2 require derivatives to be released under the same license terms and the list of copyright holders is way too large to make getting permission from all of them a practical proposition.



Many projects have "or any later version" clauses in their licensing statements. This allows the author of the license to release new versions of the license and then the projects covered by such clauses can move up to newer versions because they have (implied) permission from their contributors to use the code under "any later version" of the license.



Many projects also have some form of "contributor agreement" where contributors agree to either hand over copyright of their contributions to the organisation that created the project or agree to grant the organisation that created the project permission to use the contributions without the normal licensing restrictions and hence to re-license the project as a whole.



Such asymmetric arrangements are of course controversial, especially when there are proprietary releases involved.






share|improve this answer















As I understand it (I am not a Lawyer)



A license is a grant of permission from the copyright holder(s). Licenses may be given/sold to an individual user or (as is the case with FOSS licenses) offered to anyone who receives a copy of the work.



If the work is purely yours then you are free to release new versions under whatever license you like.



The tricky bit comes when you start accepting contributions from the community. Absent evidence to the contrary the normal assumption is that copyright of such contributions remains with their authors and the contributions are released under the same license as the project they are contributed to.



The end result of this is that a project like the Linux kernel is virtually impossible to re-license. The terms of GPLv2 require derivatives to be released under the same license terms and the list of copyright holders is way too large to make getting permission from all of them a practical proposition.



Many projects have "or any later version" clauses in their licensing statements. This allows the author of the license to release new versions of the license and then the projects covered by such clauses can move up to newer versions because they have (implied) permission from their contributors to use the code under "any later version" of the license.



Many projects also have some form of "contributor agreement" where contributors agree to either hand over copyright of their contributions to the organisation that created the project or agree to grant the organisation that created the project permission to use the contributions without the normal licensing restrictions and hence to re-license the project as a whole.



Such asymmetric arrangements are of course controversial, especially when there are proprietary releases involved.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 18 hours ago

























answered yesterday









Peter GreenPeter Green

20113




20113













  • Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

    – Cyker
    yesterday






  • 1





    I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

    – Peter Green
    yesterday











  • (to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

    – Peter Green
    yesterday






  • 2





    @Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

    – bta
    yesterday



















  • Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

    – Cyker
    yesterday






  • 1





    I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

    – Peter Green
    yesterday











  • (to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

    – Peter Green
    yesterday






  • 2





    @Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

    – bta
    yesterday

















Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

– Cyker
yesterday





Are you sure all the commonly used software licenses are agreements working in one-way, which means they only restrict the licensee, but not the licensor? I think that would be rational, but I haven't double checked all of them.

– Cyker
yesterday




1




1





I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

– Peter Green
yesterday





I can't say I've checked every single open source license either, but I have never heard of such a thing and I am doubtful (though again IANAL) it would be enforceable if it did.

– Peter Green
yesterday













(to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

– Peter Green
yesterday





(to clarify the above comment applies to licenses that are granted to the general public, propietary licenses granted to specific licensees do sometimes include terms that restrict the grantor, for example an exclusivity clause)

– Peter Green
yesterday




2




2





@Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

– bta
yesterday





@Cyker Regardless of what license you use, the licensor has all rights by virtue of being the owner. A software license is simply the owner granting some of those rights to other people so they can use the software too. The license doesn't apply to the owner. If it did, you'd end up in all sorts of non-sensical situations, like a "no derivative works" license prohibiting the owner from continuing to develop his own software. You'd also be entering into a legal contract with yourself, which generally isn't recognized as a valid thing.

– bta
yesterday


















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