[Gllug] Hypothetical GPL question

[Paul Brazier]

> -----Original Message-----
> FFS, listen! THE AUTHOR CANNOT VIOLATE THE GPL.
> 
> [They can impose conditions which are incompatible with the GPL, in
> which case the problem is that third parties cannot distribute or
> modify the software at all.]

But the value of the GPL relies on its reputation. If loads of people
released closed-source software (or stuff like nvidia did) but said it
was GPL on the "help" screen then the whole idea of the GPL would be
devalued. So in this sense maybe the GPL is "violated", although really
it is the community at large that is violated.
Maybe all this is kind of academic anyway because why would someone want
to do this in the first place?

Suppose for example a group of people produced a GPL program that became
really popular. Then they suddenly closed off the source (but kept the
binary freely distributable). That might cause a lot of problems for
people stuck with using it. Once a program is GPL, can the authors
change the license to a non-free one as long as every contributor
agrees? Effectively freezing the publicly available source at that
point?


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