[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Michael Poole wrote: > >> Please retract that claim. I have said no such thing, and have >> avoided saying anything that I thought might be misconstrued in that >> direction. >> >> To be absolutely clear: My complaints with Tivo as a hardware or BIOS >> vendor are moral and pragmatic, not legal. My complaint with Tivo as >> a distributor of Linux is what hinges on legal issues. > > but if the GPL doesn't control the BIOS how in the world are you > saying that the fact that the GPL covers the kernel makes what the > BIOS does wrong (even if the kernel was covered by GPLv3)?
I do not say that the BIOS is doing anything (legally) wrong. The wrong act is distributing the binary kernel image without distributing complete source code for it. >>> that's a seperate body of code that is in no way derived from the >>> linux kernel (even the anti-tampering functions would work equally >>> well with other Operating systems and are in no way linux >>> specific). it's no even loaded on the same media (the BIOS is in >>> flash/rom on the botherboard, the OS is on the hard drive) >>> >>> and note that the software that is checked to make sure that it hasn't >>> been changed includes much more then the kernel. it checks the kernel >>> and the initrd. >> >> Not legally relevant. > > I disagree. it's very relevant if your argument is that becouse the > checksum if a checksum of the kernel that the license for the kernel > somehow controlls what can be done with it. To the extent that it is relevant, it strengthens the argument against Tivo: they are tying together many works of authorship, including some GPLed works, in a way that makes them effectively inseparable. This is beyond "mere aggregation" on a distribution medium, and tends to implicate *all* parts of the whole as GPL encumbered. Michael Poole - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
