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

Alexandre Oliva
2007-06-17T02:00:58Z

On Jun 16, 2007, Bernd Schmidt <bernds_cb1@t-online.de> wrote:

> See, that's the problem I have with your arguments. "Same freedom for
> everyone" is a political slogan. It is not a reasoned thought.

Well, this is what got us GPLv2. And the same reasoning is getting us
GPLv3, and it does get hardware manufacturers to think twice instead
of tivoizing hardware. They can decide between respecting users'
freedoms and encouraging a community of developers around its product,
or they can decide that not letting users change the software is more
important or necessary, and give up the ability to install
modifications without user approval. If half of the vendors go each
way, we'll get far more contributions in the end, so we're better off.

This is why I think the argument that anti-tivoization won't get us
more "giving back in kind" is irrational and contradictory.

> "Tivo should install ROMs so they don't have more rights than users"

TiVo doesn't have to install ROMs. It can use the same technical
measures it uses today, then throw away the keys.

Or give the user half of the signing key, or some such.

How bad would this be for them?

--
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}