2005-09-03 #1

GPL'ed code in JBoss source tree?

If you never heard about Rickard Öberg nor know the history between him and JBoss you just may be wondering while reading this thread at theserverside.com. Essentially Rickard asks JBoss to alter the licence terms of his contributed code and change the license from LGPL to GPL:

Thanks for pointing that out, Adrian!

If you would then be so kind as to help me update the copyright statements in JBoss CVS. Just change "LGPL" to "GPL" and I'm happy. If you're busy you can begin by just changing the file you just referenced. That'd be a good start.

Thanks for helping me keeping my code Free and in the hands of the Developer! I never knew Freedom could be so much fun!

Well, I'm not arguing anymore. And I sadly have to admit to having absolutely no humor whatsoever, so I'm not joking either.

The parts of JBoss that I have written, and therefore have copyright of, are now GPL. It's that simple.

What does that mean?

Well - who knows. It seems to be a case for lawyers, because first, all newly distributed copies of Rickard contributions have to be GPL'ed. And second, this change starts effectively by now, without touching the term for existing copies. And finally - GPL and LGPL clash like oil and water.

Of course history proves none could blame Rickard for requesting it. However it could also be the start for subsequent requests, since there are others who left in dispute and earned hostile comments by a number of JBoss employees afterwards (listen Core Developers!).