“Tivoization” and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft

Re:“Tivoization” and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft by josephcsible on Saturday July 24, 2021 @12:14AM (#27938347)

Can you copy and paste the exact sentence(s) from the GPLv3 that support your position? Because that's not my reading of it at all.

EDIT: This?

> " It will depend on how the hardware was designed—but no matter what information you need, you must be able to get it."

The key word there is "need". You don't need the baseband unlock information to replace the stock kernel with a modified one.

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Re:“Tivoization” and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft by comex on Saturday July 24, 2021 @01:50AM (#27938791)

The GPLv3 requires that if you distribute GPLv3 software as part of a consumer product, users must be able to install a modified version of the software in its place.

If the baseband has GPLv3 software on it, then that implies the user has the right to run custom software on the baseband (at least at the same privilege level as said software), which probably implies the ability to connect it to arbitrary networks.

If only the application processor has GPLv3 software, then there is no requirement with respect to the baseband. The GPL isn't that viral.

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Re:“Tivoization” and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft by pabs3 on Saturday July 24, 2021 @08:53AM (#27940502)

BTW, the PinePhone baseband runs Linux on the non-DSP part of the baseband. There are folks reverse-engineering the proprietary programs running under the Linux kernel on the baseband.

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