Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1764997AbXF1Rwp (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:52:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1761250AbXF1Rwi (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:52:38 -0400 Received: from lsd-gw.ic.unicamp.br ([143.106.7.165]:40969 "EHLO boneca.lsd.ic.unicamp.br" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759676AbXF1Rwh (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:52:37 -0400 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: how about mutual compatibility between Linux's GPLv2 and GPLv3? References: <20070622013417.GT21478@ftp.linux.org.uk> <20070622041949.GA15625@thunk.org> <20070625132853.GH10008@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> <20070626041013.GG24745@delft.aura.cs.cmu.edu> <20070626162541.GA5464@delft.aura.cs.cmu.edu> <20070628050852.GA16686@delft.aura.cs.cmu.edu> From: Alexandre Oliva Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:52:11 -0300 In-Reply-To: (Alexandre Oliva's message of "Thu\, 28 Jun 2007 03\:58\:35 -0300") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (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: 2990 Lines: 57 On Jun 28, 2007, Alexandre Oliva wrote: > So, let's narrow the scenario to: tivoized machine downloads binary > from protected site, refrains from downloading sources that it could > download, user can still access and copy the binaries, but can't > obtain the sources because the machine opted not to get them. > Now, the user can't distribute the binaries, because doing so without > being able to get the sources to pass them on would be copyright > infringement. Would a court see this as a restriction on distribution > imposed by the distributor? Or by the copyright holder? I'm not sure my point was clear (not even to myself), so let me try to clarify with a slightly different scenario. Software vendor places Free Software program for sale on a web site. Customers pay a fee and are granted access to a web page from which they can download both binaries and sources. The web page encourages them to download the sources first, because, one hour after the download of the binary completes, the password that grants access to the web page and to the downloadable bits is revoked. Sloppy customer downloads only the binaries. Days later, they decide they want to hire someone else to modify the software for them. Then they realize they don't have the sources, and that they declined the opportunity to have them. So they can't reasonably modify the software, or distribute the software for another party to do it for them. They got themselves into this situation by declining the source download. The software distributor is not imposing a restriction, it's the copyright holder that is, through the license. Now, compare this with the case quoted above, in which the computer, on behalf of the customer, declines the source download. Clearly the license stops the user from distributing the software in these circumstances, and practical matters pretty much stop the user from modifying the software for any other purpose, but how is this different from the unquoted case above? Can one actually claim that the tivoizing vendor is imposing a further restriction, even though the restrictions actually stems from a decision made by the user (or rather by the computer acting on the user's behalf), and from the copyright holder? How could this be phrased as a further restriction, if the license already restricts distribution without source code, and concedes that not having the source code makes it nearly impossible to make modifications? -- 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/