[Mono-list] problems with relicensing

[Thomas F. Burdick]

Fergus Henderson writes:
 > Bob Smith <bob@thestuff.net> writes:
 > > If they relicense it, it only effects what they release.
 > and Miguel de Icaza <miguel@ximian.com> concurs:
 > > You can not do retroactive changes.
 > 
 > This is all sounds reasonable, and makes a lot of sense.
 > 
 > Unfortunately, however, the law is not always reasonable or sensible.

This isn't really specific to Mono at all.  If Ximian were able to
retroactively revoke the license to GPL'd code, the same is true of
all copyright holders.  In the United States, licenses are contracts,
and the user is given the benefit of any ambiguity, since s/he did not
have an opportunity to negotiate the contract.  I'd suggest moving
this to gnu.misc.discuss on usenet, because it's likely to have a
higher concentration of knowledgeable sources.

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