Re:Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software
by belorn on Saturday June 13, 2015 @06:11PM
(#9712890)
Okey, someone apparently thought they could do it, but then realized better and fixed it. The source today includes the original copyright notice. That they fixed it afterward should point towards what their current believes are, and if they thought their past patch was correct.
Was that version ever distributed to anyone?
I also notice in that thread that the author of Ath5K .c code give explicit permission to "Alternatively, this software may be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License". Removing the old license text of the header file and replacing it with GPL might be incorrect, and people are free to argue what a judge would say about it. It just seems very far from an actually issue, any proof of current believes, or what advices FSF gives.
Which part of the patch[0] that removed the BSD license and made the file GPLv2 isn't evidence?
You'll note that the patch removed the lines that say "Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies."
In other words they removed the notice that specifically says you're not allowed to remove the notice.
[0] https://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=118831729905625&w=2