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		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?action=history&amp;feed=atom&amp;title=LicenseExpressionFAQ</id>
		<title>LicenseExpressionFAQ - Revision history</title>
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		<updated>2026-05-07T12:09:07Z</updated>
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	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3488&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* Why was the license expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3488&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-12-11T19:58:13Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;Why was the license expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
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				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:58, 11 December 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 2:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 2:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Why was the license expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Why was the license expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The SPDX 1.x Specification and earlier versions of the License List had a limited ability to represent more complex license situations typically found in practice. Examples of such complexity can be found at: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/FileNoticeExamples . Additionally, earlier versions of the SPDX License List required the addition of multiple yet similar license identifiers in order to capture combinations of versions, the “or later” license genre (i.e. GPL-2.0 and GPL-2.0+) and the most common exceptions (e.g., GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception or&amp;#160; GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception). The SPDX Legal working group identified more than 30 additional distinct exceptions. If one tried to accommodate the many different permutations of the different exceptions with the “or later” cases, the license list would become bloated &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;and unwieldy&lt;/del&gt;. For additional historical background information you can reference: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/Legal_Team/License_Expression_Review_1.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The SPDX 1.x Specification and earlier versions of the License List had a limited ability to represent more complex license situations typically found in practice. Examples of such complexity can be found at: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/FileNoticeExamples . Additionally, earlier versions of the SPDX License List required the addition of multiple yet similar license identifiers in order to capture combinations of versions, the “or later” license genre (i.e. GPL-2.0 and GPL-2.0+) and the most common exceptions (e.g., GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception or&amp;#160; GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception). The SPDX Legal working group identified more than 30 additional distinct exceptions. If one tried to accommodate the many different permutations of the different exceptions with the “or later” cases, the license list would become &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;unnecessarily &lt;/ins&gt;bloated. For additional historical background information you can reference: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/Legal_Team/License_Expression_Review_1.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;All in all, the introduction of the WITH and ‘+” operators, and the addition of the new license list exceptions section, we are able to represent more sets of license terms found in practice while simultaneously streamlining the SPDX License List.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;All in all, the introduction of the WITH and ‘+” operators, and the addition of the new license list exceptions section, we are able to represent more sets of license terms found in practice while simultaneously streamlining the SPDX License List.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

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&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3486&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3486&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-12-11T19:01:21Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;What is the difference between a License and a License Expression?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:01, 11 December 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 28:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 28:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;A license represents a single well defined license text such as the GNU Public License or the Apache &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;that &lt;/del&gt;may have different versions made available over time. A license expression can describe the relationship between two or more licenses or license exceptions. A relationship is often created when one mixes source code under two different licenses or one chooses to offer there software under a choice of two or more licenses.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;A license represents a single well defined license text such as the GNU Public License or the Apache &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;License which &lt;/ins&gt;may have different versions made available over time. A license expression can describe the relationship between two or more licenses or license exceptions. A relationship is often created when one mixes source code under two different licenses or one chooses to offer there software under a choice of two or more licenses.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Is the License Expression Syntax Case Sensitive? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Is the License Expression Syntax Case Sensitive? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. One can use both upper or lower case.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. One can use both upper or lower case.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3477&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* Does a license expression imply any particular legal interpretation? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3477&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:54:42Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;Does a license expression imply any particular legal interpretation?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
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				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
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				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:54, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 25:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 25:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Does a license expression imply any particular legal interpretation? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Does a license expression imply any particular legal interpretation? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. Although the semantics of the operators describe a relationship between licenses, it is up to the user or distributor of the software to decide how to interpret the dynamics of the relationship of the licenses. For example, the expression GPL-2.0 OR BSD-3-Clause describes a relationship where one can choose between two licenses, but it does not imply any specific interpretation of how to choose or the way to interpret the respective licenses. Another example is GPL-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause. The AND operator represents that the code from two different works has been combined (e.g., for example a program is created by combining two different files under two different licenses). It does not specifically imply whether the resulting expression is a derivative work or a collection. The legal determination of whether the two licenses are compatible or how one might interpret the marriage of these licenses is left to the user or distributor of the file or program. It is conceivable that different organizations could come to different legal determinations for the same license expression. This is no different than two organizations having different interpretations of a given license or how to interpret the ramifications of dynamic vs. static linking.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. Although the semantics of the operators describe a &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;physical &lt;/ins&gt;relationship between licenses, it is up to the user or distributor of the software to decide how to interpret the &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;legal &lt;/ins&gt;dynamics of the &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;physical &lt;/ins&gt;relationship of the licenses. For example, the expression GPL-2.0 OR BSD-3-Clause describes a relationship where one can choose between two licenses, but it does not imply any specific interpretation of how to choose or the way to interpret the respective licenses. Another example is GPL-2.0 AND BSD-3-Clause. The AND operator represents that the code from two different works has been combined &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;via linking or source code embedding &lt;/ins&gt;(e.g., for example a program is created by combining two different files under two different licenses). It does not specifically imply whether the resulting expression is a derivative work or a collection. The legal determination of whether the two licenses are compatible or how one might interpret the marriage of these licenses is left to the user or distributor of the file or program. It is conceivable that different organizations could come to different legal determinations for the same license expression. This is no different than two organizations having different interpretations of a given license or how to interpret the ramifications of dynamic vs. static linking.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

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&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3476&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3476&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:50:38Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;What is the difference between a License and a License Expression?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
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				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
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				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:50, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 28:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 28:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== What is the difference between a License and a License Expression? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;License &lt;/del&gt;represents a single well defined license text such as the &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;GPL-2.0 &lt;/del&gt;or Apache&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;-2.0 &lt;/del&gt;that may have different versions made available over time. A license expression can describe the relationship between two or more licenses or license exceptions. A relationship is often created when one mixes source code under two different licenses or one chooses to offer there software under a choice of two or more licenses.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;A license &lt;/ins&gt;represents a single well defined license text such as the &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;GNU Public License &lt;/ins&gt;or &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;the &lt;/ins&gt;Apache that may have different versions made available over time. A license expression can describe the relationship between two or more licenses or license exceptions. A relationship is often created when one mixes source code under two different licenses or one chooses to offer there software under a choice of two or more licenses.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Is the License Expression Syntax Case Sensitive? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Is the License Expression Syntax Case Sensitive? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. One can use both upper or lower case.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;No. One can use both upper or lower case.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;!-- diff cache key spdx_mediawiki:diff:version:1.11a:oldid:3474:newid:3476 --&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3474&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3474&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:07:53Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:07, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 18:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 18:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;* GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;* GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;* GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;* GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;exceptions &lt;/del&gt;(e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;exception combinations &lt;/ins&gt;(e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why are certain licenses with exception identifiers (e.g. GPL-2.0-with-bison-exception) no longer in the SPDX License List? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why are certain licenses with exception identifiers (e.g. GPL-2.0-with-bison-exception) no longer in the SPDX License List? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;!-- diff cache key spdx_mediawiki:diff:version:1.11a:oldid:3473:newid:3474 --&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3473&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3473&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:06:56Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:06, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 14:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 14:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The license identifier “GPL-2.0+” will be depreciated in the updated version of the SPDX License List that accompanies the SPDX 2.0 specification release. The license identifier “GPL-2.0” (without the “+”) is still a valid identifier. After using SPDX in practice it was realized that there are several benefits to treating the “+” as a separate operator. The expression GPL-2.0+ is a valid expression in SPDX 2.0 and has the same semantic meaning as the deprecated license identifier “GPL-2.0+”. The only difference is that the “+” is an operator&amp;#160; that stands for “or a later version”. The “+” can now be used with other licenses in addition to the GPL and LGPL (e.g., EPL-1.0+). It reduces license list bloat, that is, we do not need to add every possible license with a “+” for all possible license cases one may encounter. This also applies to license exceptions. By introducing the “+” and “WITH” operators we can more simply and conveniently represent the myriad of special exceptions without needing to clutter the license list with all the different combinations that include the GPL and LGPL and later versions of the license. That is, we wanted to avoid adding the following to the license list: &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The license identifier “GPL-2.0+” will be depreciated in the updated version of the SPDX License List that accompanies the SPDX 2.0 specification release. The license identifier “GPL-2.0” (without the “+”) is still a valid identifier. After using SPDX in practice it was realized that there are several benefits to treating the “+” as a separate operator. The expression GPL-2.0+ is a valid expression in SPDX 2.0 and has the same semantic meaning as the deprecated license identifier “GPL-2.0+”. The only difference is that the “+” is an operator&amp;#160; that stands for “or a later version”. The “+” can now be used with other licenses in addition to the GPL and LGPL (e.g., EPL-1.0+). It reduces license list bloat, that is, we do not need to add every possible license with a “+” for all possible license cases one may encounter. This also applies to license exceptions. By introducing the “+” and “WITH” operators we can more simply and conveniently represent the myriad of special exceptions without needing to clutter the license list with all the different combinations that include the GPL and LGPL and later versions of the license. That is, we wanted to avoid adding the following to the license list: &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;•	&lt;/del&gt;GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;* &lt;/ins&gt;GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;•	&lt;/del&gt;GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;* &lt;/ins&gt;GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;•	&lt;/del&gt;GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;* &lt;/ins&gt;GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;•	&lt;/del&gt;GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; &lt;/del&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;* &lt;/ins&gt;GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;!-- diff cache key spdx_mediawiki:diff:version:1.11a:oldid:3471:newid:3473 --&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3471&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3471&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:03:34Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:03, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 17:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 17:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; &lt;/ins&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3470&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3470&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:03:07Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:03, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 16:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 16:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;Now we just need to add autoconf-exception to the SPDX License List as opposed to the above four identifiers. If a new version of the GPL was released (e.g., GPL-4.0) only one license identifier needs to be added as opposed to one for all the potential special exceptions (e.g., autoconf, bison, classpath, …)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

&lt;!-- diff cache key spdx_mediawiki:diff:version:1.11a:oldid:3469:newid:3470 --&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3469&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3469&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T19:02:53Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-marker' /&gt;
				&lt;col class='diff-content' /&gt;
				&lt;tr style='vertical-align: top;'&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 19:02, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 13:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 13:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== In the SPDX 2.0 Specification why is GPL-2.0+ no longer a proper license identifier? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The license identifier “GPL-2.0+” will be depreciated in the updated version of the SPDX License List that accompanies the SPDX 2.0 specification release. The license identifier “GPL-2.0” (without the “+”) is still a valid identifier. After using SPDX in practice it was realized that there are several benefits to treating the “+” as a separate operator. The expression GPL-2.0+ is a valid expression in SPDX 2.0 and has the same semantic meaning as the deprecated license identifier “GPL-2.0+”. The only difference is that the “+” is an operator&amp;#160; that stands for “or a later version”. The “+” can now be used with other licenses in addition to the GPL and LGPL (e.g., EPL-1.0+). It reduces license list bloat, that is, we do not need to add every possible license with a “+” for all possible license cases one may encounter. This also applies to license exceptions. By introducing the “+” and “WITH” operators we can more simply and conveniently represent the myriad of special exceptions without needing to clutter the license list with all the different combinations that include the GPL and LGPL and later versions of the license. That is, we wanted to avoid adding the following to the license list:&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The license identifier “GPL-2.0+” will be depreciated in the updated version of the SPDX License List that accompanies the SPDX 2.0 specification release. The license identifier “GPL-2.0” (without the “+”) is still a valid identifier. After using SPDX in practice it was realized that there are several benefits to treating the “+” as a separate operator. The expression GPL-2.0+ is a valid expression in SPDX 2.0 and has the same semantic meaning as the deprecated license identifier “GPL-2.0+”. The only difference is that the “+” is an operator&amp;#160; that stands for “or a later version”. The “+” can now be used with other licenses in addition to the GPL and LGPL (e.g., EPL-1.0+). It reduces license list bloat, that is, we do not need to add every possible license with a “+” for all possible license cases one may encounter. This also applies to license exceptions. By introducing the “+” and “WITH” operators we can more simply and conveniently represent the myriad of special exceptions without needing to clutter the license list with all the different combinations that include the GPL and LGPL and later versions of the license. That is, we wanted to avoid adding the following to the license list: &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0-with-autoconf-exception &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception &lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;•	GPL-3.0+-with-autoconf-exception&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

	<entry>
		<id>https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3468&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Mgisi: /* Why was the license terms expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? */</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://wiki.spdx.org/index.php?title=LicenseExpressionFAQ&amp;diff=3468&amp;oldid=prev"/>
				<updated>2014-11-24T18:27:01Z</updated>
		
		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;‎&lt;span dir=&quot;auto&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;autocomment&quot;&gt;Why was the license terms expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class='diff diff-contentalign-left'&gt;
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				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan='2' style=&quot;background-color: white; color:black; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 18:27, 24 November 2014&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Line 1:&lt;/td&gt;
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&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;−&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #ffe49c; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Why was the license &lt;del class=&quot;diffchange diffchange-inline&quot;&gt;terms &lt;/del&gt;expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;color:black; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #a3d3ff; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;== Why was the license expression syntax introduced in the SPDX 2.0 specification? ==&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The SPDX 1.x Specification and earlier versions of the License List had a limited ability to represent more complex license situations typically found in practice. Examples of such complexity can be found at: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/FileNoticeExamples . Additionally, earlier versions of the SPDX License List required the addition of multiple yet similar license identifiers in order to capture combinations of versions, the “or later” license genre (i.e. GPL-2.0 and GPL-2.0+) and the most common exceptions (e.g., GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception or&amp;#160; GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception). The SPDX Legal working group identified more than 30 additional distinct exceptions. If one tried to accommodate the many different permutations of the different exceptions with the “or later” cases, the license list would become bloated and unwieldy. For additional historical background information you can reference: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/Legal_Team/License_Expression_Review_1.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #333333; font-size: 88%; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 4px; border-radius: 0.33em; border-color: #e6e6e6; vertical-align: top; white-space: pre-wrap;&quot;&gt;&lt;div&gt;The SPDX 1.x Specification and earlier versions of the License List had a limited ability to represent more complex license situations typically found in practice. Examples of such complexity can be found at: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/FileNoticeExamples . Additionally, earlier versions of the SPDX License List required the addition of multiple yet similar license identifiers in order to capture combinations of versions, the “or later” license genre (i.e. GPL-2.0 and GPL-2.0+) and the most common exceptions (e.g., GPL-2.0+-with-autoconf-exception or&amp;#160; GPL-3.0-with-autoconf-exception). The SPDX Legal working group identified more than 30 additional distinct exceptions. If one tried to accommodate the many different permutations of the different exceptions with the “or later” cases, the license list would become bloated and unwieldy. For additional historical background information you can reference: http://wiki.spdx.org/view/Legal_Team/License_Expression_Review_1.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;

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&lt;/table&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Mgisi</name></author>	</entry>

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