Political Blather

[Luke -Jr]

On Wednesday 24 January 2007 10:07, Phil Thayer wrote:
> > MP3 is a compression format, plain and simple. It's dumb, it
> > can't hold code.
>
> O.K.  I should have been much more specific about what I was talking
> about.  The device that I called an MP3 is in actuality called an MP3
> player.  Sorry for being so vague on that point.  An MP3 PLAYER has an
> embedded OS in it.

Handheld audio players do, but I doubt they run Linux either.

> > The licensing requires that the manufacturer include a source code CD with
> > the car, or include a 2 year offer for the source code. Which is it?
>
> The do offer the 2 year support for the code.  It's called a warrantee.
> If something stops working properly they will fix it.  Whether it is a
> software, firmware or mechanical problem. 

That's not an offer for source code.

> As for the CD... They provide access to the software currently loaded on the
> car's system.  In the case of the Toyota Prius, there is a serial
> communications port under the passenger side dashboard that can be hooked up
> to a computer and the system can be accessed from there.  

And the source code is on the system?

> Why anybody who buys a car would want a CD of the Linux with their car would
> be beyond me.  Most people wouldn't know what to do with it and would be
> complaining that it would not play in the CD player in the car.

a CD with the source code. so I can modify/upgrade it, obviously.

> > > > > microwave, dishwasher (not the kids), digital alarm clock,
> > > >
> > > > If any of these are Linux-based, I certainly didn't get the mandatory
> > > > source code or offer...
>
> It is part of the warrantee.  They fix it during the warrantee period.

It's irrelevant if they "fix" the car. They MUST include an offer for source 
code, or the code itself.

> > The licensing requires that the manufacturer include a source code CD with
> > the appliance, or include a 2 year offer for the source code. I didn't get
> > it. 
>
> Show me where the license requires that an embedded version of Linux
> should include a 2 year offer for the source code.

From http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
> TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
> 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code
> as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
> appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and
> disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this
> License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of
> the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.     

They MUST include the GPL text with any distribution of Linux.

> 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under
> Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1
> and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:   

You can only distribute Linux if you do one of these:

> a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source
> code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on
> a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,   

a) include source code on a CD

> b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to
> give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically
> performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the
> corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1
> and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,     

b) include a written offer to give the source code to anyone

> c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to
> distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for
> noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object
> code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b
> above.)    

c) Not applicable, as appliance sales are commercial.

Embedded or not, the terms are the same.