Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758736AbXFVQp1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:45:27 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751065AbXFVQpQ (ORCPT ); Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:45:16 -0400 Received: from py-out-1112.google.com ([64.233.166.183]:51286 "EHLO py-out-1112.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750771AbXFVQpN (ORCPT ); Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:45:13 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=BUlxCzWcE3LFlfWV3ojp7NHNq8dj/uNLciikd5EqithsgCPDZHoiudgCGVpyI5seXYet2lkn+8fDZEBnavw1u21gzc/WwzThS1z1eNGRuyJLnNg4L5xBOYcUrIc9MG2qYXtNpevJnujloCpMFkCSj1aUbsd4eK/1AkWwi4xUEug= Message-ID: <2e6659dd0706220945g3592c558h2fe3d56c4b5015ff@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:45:11 -0300 From: "Tomas Neme" To: "Alexandre Oliva" Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 Cc: "Andrew McKay" , "Alan Cox" , "Linus Torvalds" , "Al Viro" , "Bernd Schmidt" , "Ingo Molnar" , "Daniel Hazelton" , "Greg KH" , "debian developer" , david@lang.hm, "Tarkan Erimer" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, "Andrew Morton" 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: <4679557C.5080907@iders.ca> <20070620175627.319a6c55@the-village.bc.nu> <46797C52.4020907@iders.ca> <467A99D6.6000605@iders.ca> <467ADC8A.5080401@iders.ca> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2382 Lines: 48 > powerful. It is pretty obvious that when Linus adopted GPLv2 he > didn't realize it reached that point. That when Tivo invented > Tivoization, he decided he wanted to permit this, and thus grants an > implicit additional permission for anyone to do it with his code, > doesn't mean other participants in the Linux community feel the same > way, or read the GPLv2 the same way, and could be somehow stopped from > enforcing the license the way they meant it. The thing is, what matters in copyright and licencing matters is what the author of the code understands, no the licence's author, if ambiguous. And the kernel's rights holder is Linus. The authors of the particular bits of code can complain about what tivo's doing, but since TiVo's using the linux kernel, and GPLv2 says "These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it." Linus has the last word on it. IANAL, but as far as I can tell this reads as "this licence applies to the whole, not to the parts by themselves", and so does who the "holder" is, I'd believe. So if you own a part of the kernel, then you can pursuit TiVo on your own, if they did direct use of that part especifically and break (in your opinion) what you feel GPLv2 means. You can form the CATV2 (CodersAgainstTiVo v2) and try to get TiVo to stop using the Linux Kernel for their product (because, believe me, they WON'T release the keys). Yeay, we lost Tivo's improvements on the kernel, and the posibility of having a working kernel if anyone feels like back-ingeneering TiVo for their own amusement. T -- |_|0|_| |_|_|0| |0|0|0| - 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/