lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2007]   [Jun]   [14]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
    /
    From
    SubjectRE: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3
    Date

    > What about if your GPL program ends up in a piece of hardware
    > (e.g. a ROM,
    > or an embedded ROM, or if it's some GPL code from OpenCores, as gate
    > netlist in silicon)? My interpretation is that you need a permission from
    > the author for doing that, unless there's an easy way to replace
    > it with a
    > modified copy (e.g. if you put the OpenCores stuff into an FPGA,
    > replacing
    > the configuration PROM would do it).

    The GPL does not require it to be easy in fact to modify the piece of
    software. It just requires that you have the right to modify it, that is,
    that there be no legal obstacles in your way. You are entitled to the source
    code in modifiable, understandable form. There are no legal restrictions,
    other than those in the GPL and in the law, on what you can do with it.

    What you are actually *able* to do, however, depends upon a wide variety of
    factors way outside the scope of the GPL.

    By the way, I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that *if* you provide
    me a binary made from GPL'd code that required a key to produce that binary,
    I am entitled to that key. The key is precisely analogous to any other piece
    of source code -- it is mathematically 'combined' and 'processed' by tools
    to produce the final, distributed executable. If there's some rational basis
    for a legal difference between a signing key and a header file, I don't know
    what it is.

    DS


    -
    To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
    the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
    More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
    Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

    \
     
     \ /
      Last update: 2007-06-14 22:53    [W:4.199 / U:0.324 seconds]
    ©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site