Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3

H. Peter Anvin
2007-06-20T18:55:14Z

Michael Poole wrote:
> Tomas Neme writes:
>
>> I have been following this discussion for the last week or so, and
>> what I haven't been able to figure out is what the hell is the big
>> deal with TiVO doing whatever they want to with their stupid design.
>> They made a design, they build a machine, they sell it as is, and
>> provide source code for GPL'ed software... what's your problem?
>
> It's simple: they don't provide _complete_ source code. They keep the
> source code for the part of their Linux kernel images that provides
> the functionality "runs on Tivo DVRs". The GPL requires that
> distributors of binary versions provide complete source code, not just
> the parts of source code that are convenient.
>

If true, that's a clear violation of the GPLv2, but it's very different
from preventing the loading of modified images on their hardware (which
appears to be permitted by v2.)

-hpa