Re: The power of the GPL

[Linønut]

Error BR-549: MS DRM 1.0 rejects the following post from Tim Smith:

> On 2004-08-11, Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
>> One recent development which I think shows the power of the GPL over BSD
>> and X11 style licenses is the various (somewhat GNU/)Linux-based cable/dsl
>> routers.  Without the GPL, such boxes would stay "closed", but thanks to
>> the GPL, Linksys, ASUS, etc... have had to distribute the source along
>> with the firmware, thus opening up the door for custom made firmwares (see
>> http://wl500g.dyndns.org or google for OpenWRT) with extra features.
>
> So what happens if a box maker makes it so the first stage boot loader in
> ROM only loads firmware that is signed by the maker's private key?  That
> would let them use GPL'ed software without opening up the possibility of
> custom firmware.

Sounds like a good way around it, if the maker's private key is not linked to
GPL'ed code, and hence also under the GPL, and hence not really private <grin>.

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