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

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On 06/15/2007 12:18 PM, Michael Poole wrote:
Florin Malita writes:

On 06/15/2007 10:56 AM, Michael Poole wrote:
The GPL cares about the key
used to generate an integral part of the executable form of the GPLed
work.
GLPv2 doesn't: why do you think the digital signature is an integral
part of the executable? It can be a totally separate blob, distributed
via a separate channel and even stored at a different location than
the executable. Does it still look like an integral part of the
executable to you then?

Yes.  If I cut a book in half and store the halves separately, does
the second half become an independent work?

Except in this case you're not touching the book at all. If you write a review for a book (much better analogy methinks), then your review is obviously not an integral part of the book even though it's based on its content.

The integral-ness is a
function of how the thing is created and how it functions, not how it
is stored.  If you need part B for part A to execute as intended, then
part A is not a complete work in itself.

Being an integral part (as in combined or derived work) has nothing to do with usability. There are many other bits and pieces your executable needs in order to function properly (or at all) but that doesn't make your CPU microcode & electricity provider an integral part of the program, does it?

Luckily, it doesn't really matter what you or I think that "integral-ness" means, all it matters is how copyright law defines a "derivative work" and whether a cryptographic hash is such a thing. Now are you seriously arguing that a hash is a derivative work?

  On top of this, in the Tivo
case the two are distributed together, and even part of the same file.

It's mere aggregation, but it's totally irrelevant because they could just as easily change their approach.

---
fm
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