Hi Erich and everyone, > As far as I understand, the derived work may still be published > as GPL, but not any more permissive, *if any of the used sources> are explicitly licensed GPL.*
See the underlined (above), That is the point here, AmForth has 118 primary words (in my version in dict_prims.c), these words can be used to build the entire AmForth system. I will only be using the primary words that are in the public domain (or not original works). Public domain works cannot be licensed as GPLv3, just as you cannot relicense anybody else's licensed works (if only I had this kind of power - I could control all software ever produced). Take this as a friendly rebuttal, Regards, John S On Sun, Feb 8, 2026 at 1:52 PM Erich Wälde <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hello, > > I will try to write down, what I understand starting at the > simple stuff. > > Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. > > > 1. amforth was released initially under GPLv2 > > The initial import of files was in 2006 > > Date: Mon Oct 16 08:58:30 2006 +0000 > the LICENSE.txt file lists GPLv2. In particular, amforth was > never dual licensed. > > > https://sourceforge.net/p/amforth/code/2/tree/trunk/LICENSE.txt > > > 2. license was changed to GPL v3 in 2014 > > The change occured wit r1687 on > > Date: Tue Oct 28 20:17:40 2014 +0000 > which lead to some heated discussion at the time. If I remember > correctly that license change was done in order to absorb a body > of some other Forth code into amForth, and said code was GPLv3. > And if I still remember correctly it had todo with a new target > (msp430 or arm). > > > https://sourceforge.net/p/amforth/code/1687/ > > https://sourceforge.net/p/amforth/code/1687/tree/trunk/LICENSE.txt > > > 3. Forth is peculiar, loading a programm text always extents the > original Forth in such a way, that the result is a derived works > of the underlying "original" Forth. Therefore, if said result is > wanted to have a specific license, the only way forward is to > start with a Forth featuring a suitable license. > > > > https://amforth.sourceforge.net/faq.html#what-means-the-gpl-for-my-programs > > 3.a. If you use your amforth+programm on your system, everything > is ok. > > 3.b. If you give amforth+programm to your neighbour, then the > GPL forces you to also give away the source code (original, your > changes to the original, your additions i.e. your program). You > cannot get away with giving your neighbour only a compiled > (working) system. This is the point at which you turn into a > "distributor". > > > 4. Aggregation > > Things get more interesting, if you aggregate source code from > several projects into a new thing. This is the point, where > Licence files get lengthy. For an impressive imho example see > the debian/copyright file in the sources of u-boot. > > As far as I understand, the derived work may still be published > as GPL, but not any more permissive, if any of the used sources > are explicitly licensed GPL. > > > 5. Why does this question come up? > > > From: John Sarabacha <[email protected]> > > Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 08:31:38 -0500 (2 days, 4 hours, 39 minutes ago) > > > > ... my version (split/fork) changed significantly from the > > original work, which is authored by me, to change the > > licensing of these changes from GPLv3 to MIT. > > I understand, that you want to relicense the derived work > consisting of these inputs > > - amforth > - your changes to amforth > - your program > > as a whole under the MIT License. If this is correct, then I > would point to that entry in FAQ "what means the gpl for my > programs" and conclude: Relicensing of > > - amforth > - your changes to amforth > > is not possible. You can license your program code any way you > want, however, the Forth peculiarity (see 3. above) will extent > amforths GPLv3 license to the result. > > I repeat: the sticky point is distribution of the derived work > to someone else. > > > I hope that this clarifies the situation. > > Cheers, > Erich > > -- > May the Forth be with you ... > > > _______________________________________________ > Amforth-devel mailing list for http://amforth.sf.net/ > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amforth-devel > _______________________________________________ Amforth-devel mailing list for http://amforth.sf.net/ [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/amforth-devel
