Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1031210AbWI0XEc (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:04:32 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1031211AbWI0XEb (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:04:31 -0400 Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.4]:30137 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1031210AbWI0XEa (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:04:30 -0400 Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:04:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Linus Torvalds To: Alan Cox cc: Krzysztof Halasa , Nicolas Mailhot , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, James Bottomley Subject: Re: GPLv3 Position Statement In-Reply-To: <1159398089.11049.381.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: References: <43447.192.54.193.51.1159350218.squirrel@rousalka.dyndns.org> <1159398089.11049.381.camel@localhost.localdomain> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1458 Lines: 36 On Thu, 28 Sep 2006, Alan Cox wrote: > > Actually some of the smarter ones wired it to the SMM indications in the > chipset so that only BIOS controlled SMM management code can do the > update and that does checksumming or basic very crude crypto type > checks. > > Fortunately the thought of a slammer equivalent that erases the firmware > isn't something most vendors want to risk their stock price and business > on. Amen to that. I'm pretty convinced that some companies sometimes go to unreasonable lengths in their fear of liability suits (but in their defense, it's not like the US legal environment isn't encouraging it), but I think a lot of people end up doing things like that our of very basic prudence. Not because they are "evil" or even mean anything bad at all, but simply because they have their own reasons to believe strongly that people must not upgrade their hardware. Most technology people may _want_ to upgrade their hardware, but when you look at all the spyware "upgrades" people get on their windows boxes, you can certainly understand why there are reasons for things like strong crypto upgrades with secret keys even quite apart from anything like the RIAA. 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/