Bitbucket.org

[Adrian Buehlmann]

On 02.08.2008 14:44, Martin Geisler wrote:
> Adrian Buehlmann <adrian at cadifra.com> writes:
> 
>> http://selenic.com/repo/index.cgi/hg/file/cbdfd08eabc9/COPYING#l1
>>
>> 'If the Program specifies a version number of this License which
>> applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of
>> following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any
>> later version published by the Free Software Foundation'
> 
> The very next sentence in that paragraph is:
> 
>   http://selenic.com/repo/index.cgi/hg/file/cbdfd08eabc9/COPYING#l246
> 
>   If the Program does not specify a version number of this License,
>   you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
>   Foundation.
> 
> Based on that it seems that Mercurial can be consider covered by any
> version of the GPL.

No. You can't. And especially not v3, which wasn't even published
at that time.

For some reason, the original author choose *not* to include the term
"any later version" as specifically provided in the copyright example
further down in the GPL v2 itself, which states:

'''
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

  <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
  Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>

  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.
'''

(IANAL applies here too)