License and adopting software

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Monday, 11 December 2017 at 12:24:53 +0800, blubee blubeeme wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 11, 2017 at 12:21 PM, Jonathan Chen <jonc at chen.org.nz> wrote:
>
>> On 11 December 2017 at 17:17, blubee blubeeme <gurenchan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I like some old software that's <= GPL2 but it seems like the
>>> original developer is not and have not done any work on the
>>> software sine mid 2000.
>>>
>>> I'd like to pick up the project, fix bugs BUT i'd like to migrate
>>> from GPL to BSD license.
>>>
>>> How does one go about doing that? I have seen the GPL code but it
>>> could be re-written how would that affect me re-writing the code
>>> with a new copy center license?

If you rewrite the code from scratch, you can apply any license you
like, as long as you don't copy *any* of the code.  Determination of
whether you have done so or not is tricky, and you can end up creating
bike sheds.

>> You basically have to get the original author to reassign copyright
>> to you; after which you can do whatever you like to it. If you're
>> basing your new work on the original work, you have to respect the
>> LICENCE that it came with.
>>
> There has been no update since 2005 and I've tried many times this year to
> get in touch w/ the original author. There has been no response, that's why
> I am asking here.

Unfortunately, without the agreement of all parties who have
contributed to the software, you can't change the license.  Is GPL
such a big deal?

Greg
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