Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760593AbXFSFmQ (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:42:16 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753042AbXFSFmC (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:42:02 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:40553 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752559AbXFSFmA (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:42:00 -0400 To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Al Viro , Bernd Schmidt , Alan Cox , Ingo Molnar , 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 References: <20070619012517.GL14788@delft.aura.cs.cmu.edu> From: Alexandre Oliva Organization: Red Hat OS Tools Group Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:40:59 -0300 In-Reply-To: <20070619012517.GL14788@delft.aura.cs.cmu.edu> (Jan Harkes's message of "Mon\, 18 Jun 2007 21\:25\:17 -0400") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.990 (gnu/linux) 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: 1589 Lines: 39 On Jun 18, 2007, Jan Harkes wrote: > Not really, Tivo could simply sell you a box without any installed > software. Yes. > The actual software is mailed to you on a credit card sized > ROM when you activate service. If that's a separate transaction, then yes, I believe it would not be convered under the terms of GPLv3, but IANAL. There might be some catch about intent, and also about contractual obligations in the hardware sale to provide the software (coupons anyone? :-) or some such. But then, that you sell specialized devices with say only MIT-licensed software shouldn't stop you from selling CD-ROMs with GPLed software, even if those CD-ROMs could possibly run on that device. The GPLv3 won't remove every way in which people who want/need to stop the user from making changes to the software could accomplishing this (ROM). It will just make this a bit more inconvenient, such that vendors that have the option respect users' freedoms, and those that find it too inconvenient respect the wishes of users who don't want their software turned non-free. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org} - 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/