[discuss] Reuters: Novell could be banned from selling Linux: group

[Etienne Goyer]

Russell McOrmond wrote:
> Ross Jordan wrote:
>> Something doesn't have to affect you directly to tick you off:
>> * You might be annoyed by the principal of the matter
> 
>   Are we all in agreement on what principal he is annoyed by?
> 
>   When a manufacturer sells a piece of hardware, there are two
> possibilities of who gets to decide what software can be installed on
> that device (And thus who should be in control of any cryptographic keys
> used to lock out "unauthorized" software).
> 
>    a) The manufacturer
>    b) The owner
> 
>   I have been spending all my time in recent years protecting (b).  It
> is why I started Digital-copyright.ca, co-founded GOSLING, and agreed to
> become the CLUE policy coordinator.   This is the #1 technology policy
> issue for me, and overrides pretty much any other issue.
> 
>   Linus seems to think it is a principal to protect that it be (a), and
> further that CopyLeft licensed software should be able to be freely used
> by device manufacturers that want it to be (a).
> 
>   Do you agree with Linus or do you agree with me, and why?

Your interpretation of Linus' motive is IMO wrong (see below).  Beside
that, I fully agree with your position on the subject.  I do think that
the owner should have all the right to dispose of device he own in any
way he wish.

The problem I have with your position is that I believe that the
Corresponding Source clause of the GPLv3 is useless in this regard and
actually out of scope in the context of a *software* license.


>   Can you think of any other interpretation for Linus' objections to GPLv3?

Yes.  That the Corresponding Source clause of the GPLv3 is outside the
scope of a *software* license, as encryption key are not source code.



-- 
Etienne Goyer                                       0x3106BCC2

"For Bruce Schneier, SHA-1 is merely a compression algorithm."
http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/164

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