This post reminded me of something I have been thinking about lately: is it possible to change the license of some published work?
Let's assume that 2 years ago I written this piece of code:
Code: Select all
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
cout << "Hello, World!";
return 0;
}
Then, 2 years later, I look at it and I feel like I should have used GPLv3 instead. How that would work?
I guess that the change in license will mean that a fraction of people that downloaded the software in the past now would be in breach of the new license. But that doesn't sound right, as they have been playing according to the rules up to that very day, without doing any criminal act.
So, I would guess that maybe one could release a new version of the Hello World project and say: from this version it is GPLv3, while keeping the old version available with MIT license.
What do you think? Are there best practices for this? Did you see projects switching license before?