I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice

Summary

Dealing with open source software, I regularly encounter many kinds of licenses — MIT, Apache, BSD, GPL being the most prominent — and I’ve taken time out to read them. Of the many, the GNU General Public License (GPL) stands out the most. It reads like a letter to the reader rather than legalese, and feels quite in tune with the spirit of open source and software freedom. Although GPLv3 is the most current version, I commonly encounter software that makes use of GPLv2. I got curious about the last line in its license notice: You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. Why does this license notice have a physical address, and not a URL? After all, even though the full license doesn’t often get included with software, it’s a simple matter to do a search and find the text of the GPLv2. Do people write to this address, and what happens if you do? I turned to the Open Source Stack Exchange and got a very helpful answer. It’s because the GPLv2 was published in 1991, and most people were not online. Most people would have acquired software through physical media (such as tape or floppies) rather than a download. Considering the storage constraints back then, it wouldn’t be surprising if developers only included the license notice, and not the entire license. It makes sense that the most common form of communication would have been through post. The GPLv3, published in 2007, does contain a URL in the license notice since Internet usage was more widespread at the time. I decided to write to the address to see what would happen. To do that, I would need some stamps and envelopes (I found one at my workplace) to send the request, and a self addressed enveloped with an international reply coupon to cover the cost of the reply. I was disappointed to find out that the UK’s Royal Mail discontinued international reply coup...