Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754288AbXFNUcz (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:32:55 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751059AbXFNUcr (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:32:47 -0400 Received: from zeniv.linux.org.uk ([195.92.253.2]:36229 "EHLO ZenIV.linux.org.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750941AbXFNUcq (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:32:46 -0400 Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 21:32:30 +0100 From: Al Viro To: Ingo Molnar Cc: Alexandre Oliva , Alan Cox , Daniel Hazelton , Linus Torvalds , Greg KH , debian developer , david@lang.hm, Tarkan Erimer , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Andrew Morton Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Message-ID: <20070614203230.GS21478@ftp.linux.org.uk> References: <466A3EC6.6030706@netone.net.tr> <200706132121.04532.dhazelton@enter.net> <200706132304.21984.dhazelton@enter.net> <20070614112329.3645c397@the-village.bc.nu> <20070614103846.GA7902@elte.hu> <20070614195517.GA4933@elte.hu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070614195517.GA4933@elte.hu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2034 Lines: 36 On Thu, Jun 14, 2007 at 09:55:17PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote: > This "right to modify" and "have the same rights as the hardware maker" > arguments are _totally_ bogus, they were made up after the fact, just > because quite apparently RMS had a fit over Tivo and started this verbal > (and legal) vendetta. The FSF is now attempting to rewrite history and > pretends that this "always was in the GPLv2" and applies this newly > thought up concept to the GPLv3 in a way that substantially departs from > the spirit of the GPLv2. Which spirit the GPLv2 explicitly promised to > uphold in Section 9. Which could make any contrary section of the GPLv3 > unenforceable, when applied to "GPLv2 or later" licensed software. That, BTW, is perhaps the worst problem with v2 (inherited by v3). WTF _is_ "the spirit of the license" and who gets to decide if two licenses are in the same spirit? As soon as we get to "well, original authors of the license are the final authority on that", we are in the "I've always said ..." country. Look, humans _suck_ at revision control, especially that of our intentions and opinions. It doesn't even require malice, all ancedotes about spouses/mothers-in-law/etc. nonwithstanding. We all easily fall into belief that we had always meant what we mean now; that even if we said something different, it was just a poor wording; that if we had known what we know now, we would certainly had come to the same conclusions we have come to now. "In the same spirit" is just about the weakest requirement in that area. I.e. the most prone to drift, especially when one is an ideologist and thus has severely decayed integrity to start with. Call it a professional disease of crystal ball users - or a prerequisite for playing a visionary, if you will ;-/ - 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/