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

[Alexandre Oliva <aoliva@redhat.com>]

On Jun 17, 2007, Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Sun, 17 Jun 2007, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> 
>> > What I care about is that the GPLv3 is a _worse_license_ than GPLv2,
>> 
>> Even though anti-tivoization furthers the quid-pro-quo spirit that you
>> love about v2, and anti-tivoization is your only objection to v3?

> You apparently do not understand "quid-pro-quo".

> Another way of stating it might be "same for same".

> A third way of stating it is "software for software". No, the romans never 
> said that, but I just did, to make it just more obvious that the whole 
> point is that you are expected to answer IN KIND!

Yes.  And this was precisely what meant when I wrote "quid-pro-quo"
above.

> If you don't understand it after the above, I really can only say:

> 	"You are either terminally stupid, or you're not allowing yourself 
> 	 to see an obvious argument, because it destroys your world-view".

> The latter is very possible. It's a very human thing.

/me hands Linus a mirror


Serious, what's so hard to understand about:

  no tivoization => more users able to tinker their formerly-tivoized
  computers => more users make useful modifications => more
  contributions in kind

?

Sure, there's a downside too:

  no tivoization => fewer contributions from manufacturers that demand
  on tivoization


My perception is that the first easily dominates the second, and so
you are better off without tivoization.


  
> it is also possible that they are of average intelligence, and they
> just cannot mentally _afford_ to follow the argument - it destroys
> the silyl stories they heard as children, and requires them to think
> too hard about the veracity of the source.



> PS. Since some people talked about the game theory aspects of 
> "tit-for-tat", I'd like to point out that what is usually considered an 
> even *better* strategy than "tit-for-tat" is actually "tit-for-tat with 
> forgiveness".

> In particular, "tit-for-tat with forgiveness" is considered better when 
> there is ambiguity (like "communication difficulties" - does that sound 
> familiar?) in the encouter. You allow some leeway, and don't always 
> retaliate!

> So the FSF is DOING THE WRONG THING! They are turning "tit-for-tat" not 
> into "tit-for-tat with forgiveness", but into "tit-for-tat with preemptive 
> strikes".

Wrong.  It enables copyright holders to decide whether forgiveness is
appropriate, rather than forcing them to forgive.  Being forced to
forgive deception is not tit-for-tat, and it's a losing strategy.

-- 
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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