license.html: moved GPLv2 versus GPLv2+ section down, changed it a bit

Signed-off-by: Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@googlemail.com>

1 files changed, 50 insertions, 39 deletions

diff --git a/license.html b/license.html
index acd7a8e..3e12adb 100644
--- a/license.html
+++ b/license.html
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 <!--#include file="header.html" -->
 
-<p>
 <h3><a name="license">BusyBox is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2</a></h3>
 
 <p>BusyBox is licensed under <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">
@@ -25,49 +24,13 @@ you violate the license terms, and thus infringe on the copyrights of BusyBox.
 This requirement applies whether or not you modified BusyBox; either way the
 license terms still apply to you.</p>
 
-<h3><a name="version">A note on GPL versions</a></h3>
-
-<p>Version 2 of the GPL is the only version of the GPL which current versions
-of BusyBox may be distributed under.  New code added to the tree is licensed
-GPL version 2, and the project's license is GPL version 2.</p>
-
-<p>Older versions of BusyBox (versions 1.2.2 and earlier, up through about svn
-16112) included variants of the recommended
-&quot;GPL version 2 or (at your option) later versions&quot; boilerplate
-permission grant.  Ancient versions of BusyBox
-(before svn 49) did not specify any version at all, and section 9 of GPLv2
-(the most recent version at that time) says those old versions may be
-redistributed under any version of GPL (including the obsolete V1).  This was
-conceptually similar to a dual license, except that the different licenses were
-different versions of the GPL.</p>
-
-<p>However, BusyBox has apparently always contained chunks of code that were
-licensed under GPL version 2 only.  Examples include applets written by Linus
-Torvalds (util-linux/mkfs_minix.c and util_linux/mkswap.c) which stated they
-&quot;may be redistributed as per the Linux copyright&quot; (which Linus
-clarified in the
-2.4.0-pre8 release announcement in 2000 was GPLv2 only), and Linux kernel code
-copied into libbb/loop.c (after Linus's announcement).  There are probably
-more, because all we used to check was that the code was GPL, not which
-version.  (Before the GPLv3 draft proceedings in 2006, it was a purely
-theoretical issue that didn't come up much.)</p>
-
-<p>To summarize: every version of BusyBox may be distributed under the terms of
-GPL version 2.  New versions (after 1.2.2) may <b>only</b> be distributed under
-GPLv2, not under other versions of the GPL.  Older versions of BusyBox might
-(or might not) be distributable under other versions of the GPL.  If you
-want to use a GPL version other than 2, you should start with one of the old
-versions such as release 1.2.2 or SVN 16112, and do your own homework to
-identify and remove any code that can't be licensed under the GPL version you
-want to use.  New development is all GPLv2.</p>
-
 <h3><a name="enforce">License enforcement</a></h3>
 
 <p>BusyBox's copyrights are enforced by the <a href="http://www.softwarefreedom.org/">Software Freedom Law Center</a>
 (you can contact them at gpl@busybox.net), which
-&quot;accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
+"accepts primary responsibility for enforcement of US copyrights on the
 software... and coordinates international copyright enforcement efforts for
-such works as necessary.&quot;  If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
+such works as necessary."  If you distribute BusyBox in a way that doesn't
 comply with the terms of the license BusyBox is distributed under, expect to
 hear from these guys.  Their entire reason for existing is to do pro-bono
 legal work for free/open source software projects.  We used to list people who
@@ -364,4 +327,52 @@ happy as possible so they not only have no reason to make trouble, but
 actually like you.  (Heck, we won't complain if you do both. :)
 
 
+<h3><a name="version">Developer's note: GPL versions</a></h3>
+
+<p>Version 2 of the GPL is the only version of the GPL which current versions
+of BusyBox may be distributed under.  New code added to the tree is licensed
+GPL version 2, and the project's license is GPL version 2.</p>
+
+<p>If you are a developer and you want to use a small part of BusyBox
+source code in your project, please check the header comments of the source file(s)
+you are taking code from. Even though BusyBox code, as a whole, can only be used
+under GPL version 2, some individual files may have more permissive licenses:
+"GPL version 2 or later" - meaning that you can also reuse the code from this source file
+for a project which is distributed under GPLv3, and "Public domain" -
+the code in these files have no licensing restrictions whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Historical details:</p>
+
+<p>Older versions of BusyBox (versions 1.2.2 and earlier, up through about svn
+16112) included variants of the recommended
+"GPL version 2 or (at your option) later versions" boilerplate
+permission grant.  Ancient versions of BusyBox
+(before svn 49) did not specify any version at all, and section 9 of GPLv2
+(the most recent version at that time) says those old versions may be
+redistributed under any version of GPL (including the obsolete V1).  This was
+conceptually similar to a dual license, except that the different licenses were
+different versions of the GPL.</p>
+
+<p>However, BusyBox has apparently always contained chunks of code that were
+licensed under GPL version 2 only.  Examples include applets written by Linus
+Torvalds (util-linux/mkfs_minix.c and util_linux/mkswap.c) which stated they
+"may be redistributed as per the Linux copyright" (which Linus
+clarified in the
+2.4.0-pre8 release announcement in 2000 was GPLv2 only), and Linux kernel code
+copied into libbb/loop.c (after Linus's announcement).  There are probably
+more, because all we used to check was that the code was GPL, not which
+version.  (Before the GPLv3 draft proceedings in 2006, it was a purely
+theoretical issue that didn't come up much.)</p>
+
+<p>To summarize: every version of BusyBox may be distributed under the terms of
+GPL version 2.  New versions (after 1.2.2), as a whole, may <b>only</b>
+be distributed under GPLv2, not under other versions of the GPL.
+Older versions of BusyBox might (or might not) be distributable under
+other versions of the GPL.  If you want to use a GPL version other than 2,
+you should start with one of the old versions such as release 1.2.2 or svn 16112,
+and do your own homework to identify and remove any code that can't be
+licensed under the GPL version you want to use.
+New development is all GPLv2.</p>
+
+
 <!--#include file="footer.html" -->