Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1761052AbXFQV6u (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:58:50 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752015AbXFQV6n (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:58:43 -0400 Received: from bee.hiwaay.net ([216.180.54.11]:56106 "EHLO bee.hiwaay.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751967AbXFQV6n (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:58:43 -0400 Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2007 16:58:40 -0500 From: Chris Adams To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Message-ID: <20070617215840.GA1217855@hiwaay.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <9a8748490706171436x6b9f2f13pf115d97fee3b1525@mail.gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1606 Lines: 29 Once upon a time, Jesper Juhl said: >Let's say I'm the owner of a company selling some device that uses a >GPLv2 OS and some GPLv2 applications to do the job. Let's say that for >some reason I don't want the end users of my device to tinker with the >software inside my device. Obviously I release the source for any >modifications I may have made, but I use the hardware to prevent users >from installing modified versions on the device (basically I TiVO'ize >the device). BTW: Another reason a vendor might lock down the device is for security. For example, Juniper routers (which now run a significant portion of the "core" of the Internet) run FreeBSD on the routing engine. They include several GNU software utilities (for example gawk, diff, and gdb). Starting with JUNOS 7.6 (IIRC), end-users can no longer build and run their own binaries on the routing engine. This means that the GPLv2 code cannot be modified in-place (similar to TiVo altough done using different means). The reason is that if there ever is a security hole in the routing engine software (FreeBSD kernel, OpenSSH, etc.), it would be a really bad thing if crackers could load arbitrary software (rootkits, spam software, etc.) directly on Internet core routers. If you think spam zombies on cable modems or DSL are bad, imagine them on 100 megabit links! - 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/