Can MKVToolNix be licensed under GPLv3? In other words, is its license “GPL-2.0-only” or “GPL-2.0-or-later”?
I was looking into integrating it into a GPLv3 project I’m working on, and I know that I can’t add any GPL-2.0-only code into my project without violating license terms.
Welcome!
Unfortunately it’s GPL-2.0-only and will likely remain that way. I had looked into re-licensing as GPL-2.0-or-later or even directly as GPL-3.0-or-later in the past, but there have been so many contributors over the past > 20 years that tracking them all down & getting all of their OK is way too much work, especially as that almost certainly means having to rewrite certain parts of the code if they do not agree or, more likely, cannot be tracked down anymore (e.g. they only used their work email address & don’t work there anymore etc).
Sorry.
Understood, thanks for the clarification. I’ve gone ahead and corrected the Wikipedia article, which had said GPLv2 or later, and cited this as a source.
I think the source of their information was maybe from the imposter site Terms And Conditions - MKVToolNix, which says GPLv2 or later. This site might be a GPL violation.
I’m aware of that site, see e.g. this FAQ entry. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing I could legally do about it, therefore I chose to simply not waste any more time on it.
When in doubt, go to the source: