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Hypervisors Can Defeat GPLv3's Anti-Tivoization

Posted by kdawson on from the walled-gardens dept.

DeviceGuru writes "A hypervisor can be used to isolate from each other software works released under incompatible licenses, while allowing them to run simultaneously on the same hardware. For example, Linux and Windows CE can run on separate virtual machines on one device, without violating either OS's license. Due to the isolation between multiple VMs running atop a hypervisor, it seems like this architecture could allow companies to build Linux-based devices, such as mobile phones or set-top boxes (think TiVo), that can't be upgraded by their users without authorization, thereby circumventing the GPLv3's 'anti-tivoization' clauses." Here's a white paper with more details from a commercial hypervisor company.

4 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. No, they can't. by strredwolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Simply put, if any part of the firmware is GPL 3'ed, even if it's running under a VM, it still requires the ability to replace it by the user w/o authorization from the factory. If I remember the license and discussion about it, it's "if it's in there, it's there for all."

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    # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
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  2. Re:Backfire in responce. by QuoteMstr · · Score: 5, Informative

    The goal of the GPL is to keep software free; the goal of BSD-style licenses is to ensure that high-quality software is used as widely as possible. They're conflicting goals, to an extent, though there's a big overlap.

    The GPLv3's anti-tivoization clause is true to the GPL's goal. When putting software under the GPL license, one accepts that it might not get as much use as BSD-licensed (or, as an intermediate, GPLv2-licensed) software, and that's the price for the code itself remaining free.

  3. Tivoization (n) by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Informative

    To help slashdotters not have to RTFA!
    (from the whitepaper link)
    "Device vendors are also required to provide access to the source code of the GPL programs (see PLv2 ï½3, GPLv3 ï½6), including "the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable" [Footnotes 4, 6]. However, the GPLv2 does not require that installed executables must work, which enables a mechanism the Free Software Foundation calls "Tivoization."

    "Tivoization," according to LinuxInfo.org, "refers to the configuring (by the manufacturer or vendor) of a digital electronic product that uses free software, so that the product will operate only with a specific version of such software." Technically, this means that a vendor of a product that uses GPL v2 programs could provide access to the source code, thus being compliant with the software license, but the product would be prevented from working if a modified version is installed, through the checking of the software image's signature."

  4. Re:Bogus! by cp.tar · · Score: 4, Informative

    Bull.

    The GPL does not restrict usage. It restricts distribution - and in a manner completely opposite to DRM.

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    Ignore this signature. By order.