If I release a program under GPL, do I have to continue to do so?

Posted by Kos on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Kos
Published on 2012-12-10T10:21:14Z Indexed on 2012/12/10 11:22 UTC
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licensing

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gpl

Consider this scenario:

I am developing a program FooSuite that uses a GPL-licenced library QuuxTools
I release the program FooSuite 1.0 under GPL

Later on I discover that, for some reason, I need to licence the program to someone on different terms.
Hence:

I remove the dependency on GPL via QuuxTools, by either...
- rewriting the program not to use this library any longer
- obtaining a different licence for QuuxTools (if it's dual-licenced; see PyQt)
I release FooSuite 1.1 under a non-GPL licence.

However, FooSuite 1.1 is still a derivative work from FooSuite 1.0. I understand that it's not legal for a stranger to do what I did, but am I myself - as the owner of FooSuite - free from this restriction?

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