Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756046AbXFNVY0 (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:24:26 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753097AbXFNVYS (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:24:18 -0400 Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.162.235]:34204 "EHLO nz-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751705AbXFNVYR (ORCPT ); Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:24:17 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=SWfH7zzqgQbbASOPlBTQzZ6WSc01Bmkr9sUYYbcASa861DC1VhCt+Vq8CNaKBvWwfhFjw4WGsK4tVhmualJyb3Yg/jLbwZWidXS6Uz00z3yb5BntyRMOW8EAdVROaVW6n5PUqGdkRKuKApIb5KLn2At6c3QerTFTSEejGFbo/Yw= Message-ID: <161717d50706141424s1d9d77d9l46a759894ae05655@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:24:16 -0400 From: "Dave Neuer" To: davids@webmaster.com Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Cc: "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <161717d50706141324y303f3d89n54447b7cb387979c@mail.gmail.com> X-Google-Sender-Auth: 0e8f4f370b3c6487 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1583 Lines: 35 On 6/14/07, David Schwartz wrote: > > And what about people who can't modify the Linux kernel? They don't know C. > They don't know how to use a shell. They're not familiar with UNIX operating > systems at all. Maybe they aren't smart enough to modify kernel code. I learned C in part by modifying the Linux kernel and running the modified kernel on hardware I own, and enabling precisely that kind of tinkering is what the "spirit" of the GPL is about, as is quite plain (to me) from the preamble. > > The GPL is about having the legal right to modify the software and being > able to put other people's distributed improvements back into the original > code base. I agree that is what the letter of the GPLv<3 is about. > It does not guarantee that you will actually be able to modify > the software and get it to work on some particular hardware. Please don't conflate my endorsement of the "spirit" of the GPL with Alexandre's assertion that the GPLv2 forbids TiVOisation. I don't agree with him. My point is that people arguing that the spirit of the GPL doesn't revolve around the freedom of the end user to modify the software *and* run modified copies seem to be missing the point. Linus gets that, as he said in a previous message, he just doesn't personally care about freedom defined that way. Dave - 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/