Releasing v2.0 of a previously GPL'ed project as proprietary

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JJeronimo
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Releasing v2.0 of a previously GPL'ed project as proprietary

Post by JJeronimo »

In Licensing page in the Wiki, there says:
"Yes, you are free to release v2.0 of a previously GPL'ed project as proprietary software, just as you are free to release a previously proprietary software under GPL."
http://wiki.osdev.org/Licensing#Changing_License

As I understand it, this information is not true. Version 2.0 of you program, even if made by you, is always a derivative work.
Can anyone confirm this?

JJ
AndrewBuckley
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Re: Releasing v2.0 of a previously GPL'ed project as proprie

Post by AndrewBuckley »

As long as you own the full copyright for the code in V2.0, then you can relicense or multilicense it to nearly anything you want. If you try to close source a project that has code from other people you need their permission to include it with the new license. You cannot recind the GPL conditions granted to your users of V1.0 though, if any of them have the code or binaries they have entitlements that do persist, including rights to continue a fork to compete with the closed source fork.
fronty
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Re: Releasing v2.0 of a previously GPL'ed project as proprie

Post by fronty »

Software doesn't have any license, people have licenses. If you give your software under GPL for someone else, he's bound by it. Your later actions with the source code aren't bound by any license, because you're the copyright holder. This also means that if you give someone your software under GPL, he's free to distribute it freely even if you choose to release it under restrictive license, because you licensed your program for him with GPL.
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