[copyleft-next] exceptions/additional-permissions & weak copyleft (was Re: Some initial comments on the copyleft-next draft)

Bradley M. Kuhn bkuhn at ebb.org
Tue Jul 31 23:57:17 UTC 2012


Richard Fontana wrote at 21:49 (EDT) on Monday:
> I've become more skeptical of the value of additional permissions (or
> 'exceptions' as they were called in the pre-GPLv3 era) because of the
> complexity cost they add to a given licensing situation.

To argue against additional permissions is effectively to argue against
weak copyleft.  Are you saying there should be no weak copyleft?  (I'm
not trolling; I'm asking a philosophical question: particularly given
that you're the author of LGPLv3 as an exception set to GPLv3.)

> A suitable integral weak copyleft variety of AGPL presumably could
> have been applied to stet such that the clever notice wouldn't have
> been necessary. (I'm not sure if the notice even *was* necessary, but
> I don't remember much about how stet and RT fit together.)

But... but... there's no philosophical difference between a weak
copyleft and an additional-permission set.  They are the same thing!
-- 
   -- bkuhn


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