[mkgmap-dev] License issue in mkgmap & splitter source: GPL-2 (v2 only) incompatible with GPL-3 (v3 only)

Sun Aug 6 09:11:36 BST 2017

On 08/06/2017 08:41 AM, Gerd Petermann wrote:
> okay, I see no problem to change to GPL-2+ for sources written by me, but if
> that also means we need permissions from authors who did not post anything
> since many 
> years you can probably forget this. A quick check in mkgmap sources shows
> 297 java sources with
> GPL-3 or GPL-2+ licence and 273 with GPL-2 only. Most of the latter (236)
> are from Steve Ratcliffe or have no copyright section.

Yes, hunting down past contributors is a problem with relicensing.

Alternatively GPL-3 (v3 only) sources must be kept out of mkgmap &
splitter, because that introduces the license incompatibility with the
many GPL-2 (v2 only) sources.

Kind Regards,

Bas