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    SubjectRe: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3
    Date
    On Thursday 14 June 2007 14:35:29 Alexandre Oliva wrote:
    <snip>
    > > So let's look at that "section 6" that you talk about, and quote the
    > > relevant parts, will we:
    > >
    > > You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients'
    > > exercise of the rights granted herein.
    > >
    > > and then let's look at Red Hat sending me a CD-ROM or a DVD.
    > >
    > > Now, Red Hat clearly *did* "further restrict" my rights as it pertains TO
    > > THAT COPY ON THE CD-ROM! I cannot change it! Waa waa waa! I'll sue your
    > > sorry ass off!
    >
    > Red Hat is not stopping you from making changes. The media is, and
    > that's not something Red Hat can control.

    TiVO isn't stopping you from making changes - the *media* is. (in this case
    the "Media" isn't even doing as much as a CD-ROM does. The only thing a TiVO
    box restricts is which binaries it will execute as the operating system)

    >
    > Compare this with the TiVO. TiVO *designs* the thing such that it can
    > still make changes, but customers can't.
    >
    > That's the difference.

    No, it isn't. Look at any motherboard. The Bios on the last three or four
    motherboards I've purchased check for a digital signature on the Bios
    updates. The motherboard manufacturer can make changes, but the customer
    can't. Is there any difference? Nope.

    > TiVO is using hardware to "impose further restrictions on the
    > recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein", and this violates
    > section 6 of GPLv2.

    No, they don't. The GPLv2 makes no provisions for you being able to execute a
    modified copy of the code on the same media or hardware that you received it
    on. The fact is that claiming it was "the spirit" doesn't matter at all -
    this isn't philosophy you're arguing, its *LAW*, and in law, if it isn't
    clearly spelled out, it doesn't exist.

    > > See the issue? You are continually making the mistake of thinking that
    > > the GPLv2 talks about individual copies of software.
    >
    > It does. You're making the mistake of thinking that it doens't. And
    > even in the legal terms that you claimed to have understood so
    > thoroughly.
    >
    > > The rights granted are the rights to "distribute and modify the
    > > software".
    >
    > More specifically, some of the rights are:
    >
    > copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as
    > you receive it
    >
    > modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it, thus
    > forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute such
    > modifications or work

    And where does it say that you even have the right to run the "work based on
    the Program", or even a self-compiled copy of the "verbatim copy of the code"
    on any given piece of hardware?

    > > But by "the software", the license is not talking about a particular
    > > *copy* of the software, it's talking about the software IN THE ABSTRACT.
    >
    > Please read it again.

    Done. Section 3 of GPLv2 covers the right to distribute "object code" forms of
    a licensed work. At no point does it even *mention* that, if the object code
    form comes on a device capable of executing it, you have to give the right to
    execute a modified form of the work on the same platform. If this has been
    the "intent and spirit" of the license from the beginning, it should be there
    somewhere.

    DRH

    --
    Dialup is like pissing through a pipette. Slow and excruciatingly painful.
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