loopholes [LWN.net]

loopholes

Posted Apr 7, 2006 17:50 UTC (Fri) by stevenj (guest, #421)
In reply to: Bruce Perens: State of Open Source by dlang
Parent article: Bruce Perens: State of Open Source

for the other poster above who said that in my example redhat wouldn't have my box as the 'primary inteneded use' of the software so it wouldn't apply, if that's all it takes it's pretty easy for a company to have an official 'primary intended use' for something that doesn't involve a locked down box, but that also gets used on a locked down box and at least argue plausably that they are not violating things.

I didn't say "primary intended use". I used the words in the (draft) GPLv3: "recommended or principal context of use". And so should you.

Your claim is not very plausible. If you ship a locked-down box bundled with GPL-derived software that has been modified to add DRM, then it seems very hard to argue with a straight face that you are not "recommending" that users employ the software you give them with the hardware you sell them.

Yes, you could try to imagine a hypothetical DRM hardware maker who doesn't include software with their device, but rather requires you to download it from some third party who has nothing to do with DRM, but that is quite a stretch. First, forcing hardware manufacturers to not bundle the software customers need to use the hardware is imposing quite a penalty on them. Second, it seems unlikely that if you want to enforce DRM you're going to rely on the cooperation of a third party who has no financial interest in enforcing DRM on your hardware.

By all means, bring this up with the GPLv3 committees (and for the same reason, it's probably not worth arguing more about it here). However, I'm inclined to give some credence to the ability of a law professor who has spent years enforcing the GPL, and thereby inclined to doubt any random fellow who claims there are "obviously" huge loopholes.

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loopholes

Posted Apr 8, 2006 1:33 UTC (Sat) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]

you misunderstood what I said

I said that I ship a DRM'd hardware box with NO GPL software. I have the propriatary loader on that box set to go out to a public webserver, download GPL software that's signed and install it only if the signature is valid.

at this point I have not distributed any software so no provisions of the GPl apply to me. but they would apply to the people who ship the software.

and if you depend on the "recommended or principal context of use" phrasing then recognise that it's very possible to use this as a loophole (and how large this loophole can be). trying to define the "recommended or principal context of use" is a process that can very easily be muddied. all it takes is to have one company that distributes a package that can be used for multiple things, some of which are legit by anyone's standards, some of which are of the tivo catagory. at that point it's really hard to argue sucessfully that company B's use of their software is their "recommended or principal context of use".