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

[Alexandre Oliva <aoliva@redhat.com>]

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}
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