Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758144AbXFQIfg (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:35:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754259AbXFQIf2 (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:35:28 -0400 Received: from paragon.brong.net ([66.232.154.163]:45627 "EHLO paragon.brong.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754055AbXFQIf1 (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:35:27 -0400 Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:35:21 +1000 From: Bron Gondwana To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Bron Gondwana , Alexandre Oliva , Ingo Molnar , Alan Cox , Daniel Hazelton , 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: <20070617083521.GC5440@brong.net> References: <20070615041149.GA6741@brong.net> <20070615072322.GA7594@brong.net> <20070616021630.GA30660@brong.net> <20070616103130.GD32405@brong.net> <20070616233251.GA17270@brong.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Organization: brong.net User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.15+20070412 (2007-04-11) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1560 Lines: 38 On Sat, Jun 16, 2007 at 05:58:11PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > On Sun, 17 Jun 2007, Bron Gondwana wrote: > > > > No, I'm arguing that it's not "mere aggregation" - the kernel is useless > > on that machine unless the BIOS is present or replaced with something > > else with equivalent functionality. > > That's *not* a valid argument! > > I know, I know, it's a common one, but it is *nonsense*. Further to my other response on this (yeah, I know, I should think first). Where the BIOS author and 'work aggregator' are different organisation with no shady backroom links (other than the usual industry cabal(TINC) of course) then it's clear. When they are the same organisation then the derivedness state is a lot less clear and more "discoverable", leading to a higher risk of ambush by litigation. This isn't specific to any particular licence, but it's something that the "intent" theory of hardware limitations being a GPL3 violation makes extra dangerous, because that clause can be used as a hook to drag a claim through summary judgement (IMHO, IANAL, etc) Bron ( mostly arguing the same things that you are Linus, I think, but I didn't clarify that I was writing from a devil's advocate position in an alternative reality where Tivo was illegal purely due to "intent" ) - 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/