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Re: GPLv3 comedy unfolding -- Linus, "DRM language is truly just a bug-


From: Alexander Terekhov
Subject: Re: GPLv3 comedy unfolding -- Linus, "DRM language is truly just a bug-fix, not a new feature"
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:48:49 +0200

(Harold[sic] Welte is a famous German GPL lunatic... anti-globalization 
activist and all that)
-----

No need to be sorry...
Authored by: Arker on Saturday, July 29 2006 @ 05:44 AM EDT

    The fact is, the GPLv2 has been very successful for fifteen years.
Why are you automatically assuming that the v3 changes are changes for
the better?

I certainly don't. I'm actually very skeptical of it, at the moment. The
issue Harold Welte had with the termination clause in the first draft
struck me like a ton of bricks the first time I read through it. The
second draft version is better, but it still has me worried.

But on the other hand, your complaints about the DRM clauses don't seem
reasonable to me at all. They seem to boil down to two things.

First, that it will force you to publish private keys/make security
impossible. That's just not true. I've gone through this thing over and
over, trying to figure out where you see that, but I can't. Eben Moglen
can't either, so I feel like I'm in good company. Best I can tell,
you're completely off target there. It just doesn't say anything like
that.

Second, you think it's ok that Tivo does what it does, and you don't
want to prevent it. That's much more understandable. That's your
viewpoint, and I'd like it very much if you'd try a little harder to
understand why so many people disagree with it, but regardless, it's
your viewpoint and you have a right to it. But I think you're in the
minority here. I think most people when they read the GPL v2 see what
Tivo does as completely against the intent of the license, and probably
against the letter of it. If you see it like that, then the DRM language
is truly just a bug-fix, not a new feature. It's just making the
language clearer so that violators won't have this cloud of ambiguity
and reasonable doubt to hide behind and make enforcement difficult and
expensive, nothing more.

If you want people to be able to Tivo-ise your code, that's your right.
Don't use GPL v3 for your code. (To be safe, you'd probably have to go
BSD with it in fact, as the GPL v2 might well be found by a court of law
to prohibit this if anyone with deep pockets wants to hire some lawyers
and force the issue.) But why get upset that other people don't want
their code to be used in this way, and want a license that will clearly
prohibit it? How does that hurt you? 
------

regards,
alexander.


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