On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 08:55:54AM +0200, Oliver Schinagl wrote: > >If the kernel is distributed as part of a rom, I could understand the > >readme being visible inside of the zip, but the "offer" seems to be for > >kernel releases. > > > > That's an interesting concept, and since I'm no legal expert nor am > I a lawyer, I only voice my opinion. > > It is highly unlikely (possible it's a kernel module that exports it > as virtual file) that it is part of the kernel. Actually, the readme > is part of the ROM, or rather disk-image, which isn't really an > offer with the kernel.
FWIW, I think Android relies on something similar with it's About->Legal option. All the legal notices including kernel details are there, accessible that way on the device itself and also in a plaintext file on the filesystem image. As far as I know some vendors will also ship printed legal notices in the box, but I believe not all of them do this. IANAL Google's legal minds seem to think this is OK, and in my personal opinion it's also compliant with the spirit of the GPL. At any rate AFAIK if a third party doesn't like the notice distribution method they can always repost the kernel with the information from the original offer notice reformatted in a more accessible way, under the terms of GPLv2 3(c). The original offer information remains legitimate & binding on the redistributed package provided the kernel binary itself remains unmodified. - Angus
