On Mon, Dec 04, 2017 at 10:19:29PM +0100, Thomas Gleixner wrote: > Add the full text of the GPL 2.0 license to the LICENSES directory. It was > copied directly from the COPYING file in the kernel source tree as it > differs from the public available version of the license in various places > including the FSF. > > Philippe did some research on the GPL2.0 history: > > There is NO trustworthy version of an official GPL 2.0 text: the FSF > official texts are all fubar (if only in small and subtle ways). The FSF > texts should be authoritative, but then which one? They published more > GPL 2.0 versions than most. So we would be hard pressed to blame SPDX or > the OSI for having their own minor variant. > > Then in digging further, I found the ONE true original GPL with a file > time stamp on June 2 1991, 01:50 (AM?, PM? unknown time zone?) ! in an > old GCC archive. > > For the posterity and everyone's enjoyment I have built a git history > of GPL 2.0 Mark1 to Mark6 > > See https://github.com/pombredanne/gpl-history/commits/master/COPYING > > I also added a shorter history of the Linux COPYING text. The first > version in Linus's git tree is based on the very fine and well tuned GPL > 2 Mark4, the first fully Y2K compliant version of the GPL 2, as you can > see from the diffs with the former Mark3: that was dangerously stuck in > the last century. > > The current version in is based on a rare GPL 2.0 Mark5.1 aka "Franklin > St", that I do not have in my history yet and spells "Franklin St." > rather than "Franklin Street." Therefore there is likely another GPL 2.0 > version between Mark4 and Mark5 that I have yet to find and may not have > been caught by the archive.org spiders. Here help and patches welcomed: > this is likely an important missing link. > > Further information about this archaelogical research; > > > http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CAOFm3uEzRMf261+O-Nm+9HDoEn9RbFjH=5j9i1c2ggmug2g...@mail.gmail.com > > Add the required tags for reference and tooling. > > Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <t...@linutronix.de>
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