GPLv3

Comment 1565: Should be made clearer

Some issues to consider:

Should root/user passwords be made available in clear-text? Without such, a user might be unable to install modified binaries etc. With them, anything may be possible, but should be OK locally. However, FCC-mandated devices might require software-regulated band- and strength-limits etc., or else government may otherwise ban GPL v3 for such devices. So maybe not ok..

Stored keys on the harddrive to online services should certainly not be mandated. Just like SSH, PGP, PKI-keys this should be considered data.

If this is enough to verify a system-program's version, even with root-access, then we maybe set. (I'm not an expert on private keys & crypto unfortunately)

Something do tells me that with root-access, anything is really possible to "break" this type of "trusted security" though. Some process on the machine needs to be hidden, but this can also enable all sorts of "bad DRM".

I'm uneasy about "legislating" technology like this, and it seems an all-or-nothing approach works best, but that means GPL should be forked into two distinct licenses IMHO.

See

* http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/gplv3-fda