November 20, 2025, 6:51pm 1
Although its is an important difference between or-later and only for a GPL licenced project, these project often don’t state if their license is compatible with later versions of the GPL.
Unfortunately, these repos also lack a license header* in the source files, which would clarify this.
Do someone know a method to check the exact terms of an open source project if there is no licence header?
Licence header are looking like this: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version
The clause in the GPL I am refering to is the following (for the GPLv3):
#…
November 20, 2025, 6:51pm 1
Although its is an important difference between or-later and only for a GPL licenced project, these project often don’t state if their license is compatible with later versions of the GPL.
Unfortunately, these repos also lack a license header* in the source files, which would clarify this.
Do someone know a method to check the exact terms of an open source project if there is no licence header?
Licence header are looking like this: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version
The clause in the GPL I am refering to is the following (for the GPLv3):
14. Revised Versions of this License.
The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Program.
Later license versions may give you additional or different permissions. However, no additional obligations are imposed on any author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a later version..
You should ask the author to include headers or SPDX identifiers. They’re the only one who can answer this.
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