Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756611AbXFURQU (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:16:20 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754737AbXFURQO (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:16:14 -0400 Received: from caffeine.uwaterloo.ca ([129.97.134.17]:53689 "EHLO caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753992AbXFURQN (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:16:13 -0400 Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:16:12 -0400 To: Michael Poole Cc: david@lang.hm, "H. Peter Anvin" , Tomas Neme , "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Message-ID: <20070621171612.GC10008@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> References: <9a8748490706201034j43139301w5a18c172d688c724@mail.gmail.com> <2e6659dd0706201110x20fa5c28n5d6fc094e9f5c832@mail.gmail.com> <871wg6trnx.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org> <467977F7.2040506@zytor.com> <87sl8ms9z5.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org> <87k5tys8w5.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org> <87645is82q.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87645is82q.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) From: lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1300 Lines: 32 On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 04:07:57PM -0400, Michael Poole wrote: > I do not say that the BIOS is doing anything (legally) wrong. The > wrong act is distributing the binary kernel image without distributing > complete source code for it. So how about this idea then: Tivo builds a kernel for their box, and release all the sources for how to build exactly that kernel. Tivo builds a bios image for their box, and encodes into it the checksum of the kernel, or at least parts of it that they want to ensure are present and unmodified. Everytime the device boots, it checks the kernel image, and it the checksums match, it loads and runs the kernel, and otherwise it checks if there is a new bios image with a proper signature, updates itself and reboots and tries again. Preventing people from doing things with their own hardware certainly seems morally wrong, but legally, I don't see any way to prevent it. I suppose you could say in the license: You may not use this code in any way if you do what the RIPP/MPAA/etc want you to do. -- Len Sorensen - 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/