GPLv2 to v3 upgrade and "further restrictions" issue

Roberto Gordo Saez roberto.gordo at gmail.com
Mon Aug 24 13:49:21 CEST 2009


Hello, I want to upgrade a program from GPLv2 to GPLv3, and I am quite
confused because some special conditions attached to the GPL in this
particular program. I need your help to understand this.

I'm *not* the copyright holder. The program is under GPLv2 "or (at your
option) any later version", with an additional restriction: usage for
commercial products is not allowed.

The GPLv3 has information in section 7 about "further restrictions":

  If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice
  stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a
  further restriction, you may remove that term. If a license document
  contains a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying
  under this License, you may add to a covered work material governed by
  the terms of that license document, provided that the further
  restriction does not survive such relicensing or conveying.

If I have a GPLv3 program with "further restrictions", I can remove them,
that is clear. If I have a GPLv2 program that "permits relicensing or
conveying under this License", then I can use it under the GPLv3
"provided that the further restriction does not survive".

How can I know if the restriction "survives"? And what does it exactly
mean to survive? Does it mean that the restriction must be revoked by the
copyright holder, or does it mean that the restriction is no longer valid
once the code is under GPLv3?




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