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

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Message-ID: <87sl8qwusg.fsf@graviton.dyn.troilus.org>
Date:	Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:54:39 -0400
From:	Michael Poole <mdpoole@...ilus.org>
To:	Daniel Hazelton <dhazelton@...er.net>
Cc:	Alexandre Oliva <aoliva@...hat.com>,
	Bron Gondwana <brong@...tmail.fm>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3

Daniel Hazelton writes:

> But your server doesn't run the internet. TiVO may use phone lines to connect 
> a device to their server (and this is an example - I don't know how TiVO 
> devices actually connect) but the network being connected to has a single 
> owner who can set such terms. 
> 
> I'll repeat, in full, my earlier examples of this:
> The first:
> I buy a cable modem. Until the second I connect the cable-line to it so I can 
> get a connection to the internet I can configure it in whatever manner I 
> please. The second the line is connected, even though I *OWN* the hardware, I 
> lose all control over its configuration.
>
> The second:
> I buy a DSL modem. Until I want to actually connect to the internet it can 
> have whatever settings I want it to have. The second I want to connect to the 
> internet it has to be configured the way that the ISP wants.

Jung va gur jbeyq znxrf lbh guvax gurer vf n hfrshy nanybtl
orgjrra pbzzhavpngvba fgnaqneqf naq pbclevtug yvprafrf?

One moment, let me retune.

What in the world makes you think there is a useful analogy
between communication standards and copyright licenses?

Neither law nor common sense give much common ground to the two,
except in the general sense of two parties interacting.  One is a set
of rules so the two can interact through some information channel.
The other is a set of rules so that one can exploit a creative work
developed by the other.

I suppose that you think it is acceptable for someone to offer access
to binary and source versions of GPLed software (with or without
modifications from commonly available versions) -- but only on the
condition that people never download the source versions?  That
certainly corresponds to the idea that Tivo can keep proprietary
extensions to the kernel if Tivo's customers want to connect to Tivo's
network services.

Your reliance on counterfactual arguments severely undermines your
position -- whether the fiction is how Tivo devices connect (a quick
search on Google indicates that Tivo recommends a broadband Ethernet
connection rather than a phone line) or that we should analyze based
on DRM signatures distributed separately from the kernel (when they
are not).  We are arguing about the universe we inhabit, not some
alternative where the GPL might actually be the Groundhog Petting
License.

Michael Poole
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