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No, you can’t take open-source code back

This issue of whether you can pull code from an open-source program under the GPLv2 keeps coming up. In the last go-around, some people argued they could take their code out of Linux. Richard M. Stallman, author of the GPLv2 — the open-source license that governs Linux — but no fan of Linux, replied: “The developers of Linux, or any free program, can remove any and all code, at any time, without giving a reason. However, this doesn’t force others to delete that code from their own versions of the program.” 

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