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On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Fernando Reyes |
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<likewhoa@××××××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> grub seems out of the questions because of licensing issues. |
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What licensing issues? Just distribute the source. If the Gentoo |
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Foundation goes into the hardware business and starts distributing |
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hardware that only boots Gentoo-signed grub bootloaders then we'll |
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have to distribute our private key. Or we could just be intelligent |
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and not distribute hardware that only boots Gentoo-signed grub |
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bootloaders. |
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For some reason everybody goes nuts over UEFI and GPLv3. The license |
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isn't any more unclear about that than anything else that people go |
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nuts over the GPL about. |
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|
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GPLv3 states: |
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If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or |
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specifically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as |
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part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the |
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User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a |
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fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the |
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Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied |
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by the Installation Information. |
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You only need to provide installation information if "the conveying |
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occurs as part of a transaction in which the right of possession and |
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use of the User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity |
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or for a fixed term." So, as long as Gentoo doesn't distribute |
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hardware, we aren't bound by that clause. |
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|
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If somebody else distributes hardware that only boots Gentoo-signed |
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GRUB bootloaders then they'll need to distribute the Gentoo private |
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keys along with them or they can be sued by the Grub copyright |
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holders. If they ask us for said keys we'll just say no, and they can |
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fight it out with the FSF. We aren't the ones distributing Grub out |
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of compliance, so we haven't violated the license. |
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If somebody has a specific licensing-related concern we can always |
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have the Foundation/ licensing team look into it, as we are already |
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doing with the copyright attribution question. |
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|
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Rich |
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