lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2007]   [Jun]   [14]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
    /
    Date
    From
    SubjectRe: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3


    On Thu, 14 Jun 2007, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
    >
    > It's disappointing that I took so much of everyone's time without
    > achieving any of my goals.

    What do you expect, when you tried to entertain a legal picture of the
    GPLv2 that even the FSF counsel doesn't believe in?

    I will state one more time: I think that what Tivo did was and is:

    (a) perfectly legal wrt the GPLv2 (and I have shown multiple times why
    your arguments don't hold logical water - if you actually followed
    them yourself, you wouldn't be using a redhat.com email address!)

    (b) not just legally right, but perfectly morally right too (it wasn't
    some underhanded "trick" thing - it was following the spirit _and_
    the letter of the law)

    (c) the only reasonable thing many companies *can* do in the face of laws
    and regulations and entities like the RIAA/MPAA.

    and you should admit that the fact that the FSF counsel says that it
    couldn't sue Tivo in the US, it means that while my standpoint may not be
    the _only_ possible one, I'm certainly not "confused" about (a) above.

    The (b) and (c) points are not "legal" points, they are about the fact
    that quite often, morality and practicality are independent of legality,
    and you should never see law as being the *only* thing that matters. So
    the reason I bring them up is that it wasn't just "legally ok", they also
    had good *reasons* for doing it, and there was no hanky-panky about it!

    In fact, I consider Tivo one of the good guys, because they were one of
    the few people that had things like the GPLv2 actually printed out and
    clearly stated IN THE MAIN PAPER MANUAL. In the very first version of
    their box. Without anybody twisting any arms at all.

    IOW, Tivo really did everything right. I personally think that they were
    even classy about it.

    And that's my opinion. THINK about that for a moment. THINK about the fact
    that I am the original copyright holder in the main software project they
    used, and that I state that as neither having ever gotten paid _or_ owning
    any stock what-so-ever in Tivo.

    Dammit, if I cannot say that I think what they did was fine, who can?

    So pause there for a moment, and really *think* about the above. Stop
    seeing Tivo as "the devil".

    [ Wait a few seconds here, thinking! ]

    Now, we both agree that GPLv3 would change the situation wrt Tivo, don't
    we?

    [ Wait a few more seconds here, thinking about what that means, taking the
    above into consideration ]

    ..so given that I think that what Tivo did is *fine*, the GPLv3 "solution"
    is not a solution at all, is it?

    Quite the reverse. It's a unnecessary restriction that doesn't actually
    solve anything at all, it just adds problems of its own.

    And yet you claim that you cannot understand why I (and others) would
    consider the GPLv3 to be a "worse" license. It is *obviously* worse to
    anybody who thought that "Tivoization" wasn't a problem in the first
    place!

    .. but I guess you'll ignore that argument, the way you ignored all the
    other ones too, and continue to blame your lack of understanding on me
    being "confused" about the issue.

    Linus
    -
    To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
    the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
    More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
    Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

    \
     
     \ /
      Last update: 2007-06-15 04:23    [W:5.173 / U:0.008 seconds]
    ©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site