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

Alexandre Oliva
2007-06-17T18:28:58Z

On Jun 17, 2007, Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> wrote:

> * Alexandre Oliva <aoliva@redhat.com> wrote:

>> On Jun 15, 2007, Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> wrote:
>>
>> > it is a false statement on your part that the executable "does not
>> > function properly" if it lacks that part. Try it: take out the harddisk
>> > from the Tivo (it's a bog standard IDE harddisk), put into a nice Linux
>> > PC, mount it, modify a bit in the kernel image header and it will likely
>> > still boot just fine on that PC.
>>
>> Ok, try this: take the disk out, remove/replace/modify the signature,
>> put the disk back in, and tell me what it is that fail to run.

> you mean back into the Tivo? That is not support for what you claimed.
> You claimed the "executable does not function properly" if it lacks that
> part (and you did not qualify your statement with anything). That was a
> false statement, because it still works fine in just about any
> bog-standard PC. A true statement would be: "the modified executable
> does not function properly _in the Tivo_". It still works fine on a
> general purpose PC.

I stand """corrected""". It doesn't matter, because the TiVo is where
the combination of the executable with the signature shipped, and,
see, I didn't talk about modifying the executable, what I wrote about
above was modifying the signature alone. See?

> But you didnt really want to make use of Tivo's free software
> enhancements, right? Lets face the sad truth: the overwhelming majority
> of Tivo 'modders' wanted to hack the PVR not to enhance the Tivo, they
> more likely wanted to watch pay-per-view content without the pay bit and
> they perhaps wanted to get around service restrictions that the Tivo
> implements (and through which it funds lower-than-production-cost for
> the PVR). So the 'rights' you are trying to protect are invented
> 'rights' of mostly _freeloaders_ in fact.

Sony Betamax anyone?

--
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}