&gt; If he liked the GPLv3 he may have added the line back in<p>No, he couldn&#x27;t have, because all the contributions received for the kernel were licensed GPLv2 without the &quot;or later&quot; clause, and cannot be relicensed to GPLv2 with the &quot;or later&quot; clause. Linux is GPLv2-only <i>forever</i>, essentially.<p>(It could relicense by stopping accepting contributions licensed without the &quot;or later&quot; clause, <i>and</i> either negotiating with all existing contributors to relicense <i>or</i> waiting for the copyrights to expire, but that&#x27;s not likely to be practical. It certainly can&#x27;t be relicensed on Linux or any other one actor&#x27;s whim.)