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

Alexandre Oliva
2007-06-19T18:23:33Z

On Jun 19, 2007, Anders Larsen <al@alarsen.net> wrote:

> On 2007-06-18 21:50:12, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> Given the ROM exception in GPLv3, I guess you could seal and
>> anti-tamper it as much as you want, and leave the ROM at such a place
>> in which it's easily replaceable but with signature checking and all
>> such that the user doesn't install ROM that is not authorized by you.

> The manufacturer must be able to _remotely_ update the device
> firmware, so as I see it (IANAL), Tivoisation _is_ a requirement.

If you take the Wikipedia definition of Tivoization, you'll see it's
about copyleft software only, and no law mandates the use of copyleft
software. There's no end to bad laws, but a law that mandated the use
of copyleft (=> free) software and at the same time prohibited
modifications by the user would be a very contradictory one.

--
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}