diff --git a/gpl-lgpl.tex b/gpl-lgpl.tex index 92f809df426e1e20f112b2c8ed9e5c063c9817f3..8374feae1647bf87fc56cd0bf8db7073bc64583f 100644 --- a/gpl-lgpl.tex +++ b/gpl-lgpl.tex @@ -2803,6 +2803,35 @@ program might not have the keys. % FIXME: installation information + +Why do distributors only have to provide Installation Information for User Products? + +Some companies effectively outsource their entire IT department to another +company. Computers and applications are installed in the company's offices, +but managed remotely by some service provider. In some of these situations, +the hardware is locked down; only the service provider has the key, and the +customers consider that to be a desirable security feature. + +We think it's unfortunate that people would be willing to give up their +freedom like this. But they should be able to fend for themselves, and the +market provides plenty of alternatives to these services that would not lock +them down. As a result, we have introduced this compromise to the draft: +distributors are only required to provide Installation Information when +they're distributing the software on a User Product, where the customers' +buying power is likely to be less organized. + +This is a compromise of strategy, and not our ideals. Given the environment +we live in today --- where Digital Restrictions Management is focused largely +in consumer devices, and everyone, including large companies, is becoming +increasingly worried about the effects of DRM thanks to recent developments +like the release of Microsoft's Windows Vista --- we think that the proposed +language will still provide us with enough leverage to effectively thwart +DRM. We still believe you have a fundamental right to modify the software on +all the hardware you own; the preamble explains, ``If such problems [as + locked-down hardware] arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready +to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as +needed to protect the freedom of users.'' + % FIXME: This needs merged in somewhere in here The mere fact that use of the work implies that the user \textit{has} the key