Subject: bug#12627: The file lib/COPYING does not match current automake license status

From: Stefano Lattarini <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2012 11:41:24 +0200

tags 12627 notabug
close 12627
thanks

On 10/12/2012 08:54 AM, Pavel Raiskup wrote:
> Hello,
Hi Pavel, thanks for the report.  However, this is not a bug.

> the commit fcf2f56062e384455ec8b1aed943af33f20c27c7 reverted GPLv3+ ->
> GPLv2+ license but lib/COPYING stays GPLv3+.
> 
This is actually intended: the file 'lib/COPYING' is what Automake installs
for packages using the "gnu" strictness which lacks an explicit COPYING
file in their source tree; and this is the right thing to do, since the
GPLv3 should be the license of choice for GNU projects, so we assume it as
the default one.  The fact that Automake itself is still under the GPLv2
license is irrelevant in this respect: the given rationale would hold even
if Automake were under a BSD or Public Domain license :-)

Best regards,
  Stefano