SFLC: Automotive Software Governance and Copyleft

The Software Freedom Law Center has announcedthe availability of awhitepaper [PDF] about automotive software and copyleft, written byMark Shuttleworth and Eben Moglen. At its core, it's an advertisement forUbuntu and Snap, but it does look at some of the issues involved.

The fine grain of interface access rights provided by the snapdgovernance agent can thus provide further isolation and security when itis running user-modified code, guaranteed under the snap packagingparadigm to cause no other program code to be modified, to break, or toperform differently because of the presence of the user-modifiedprogram. Such a structure of modification permission can be operated by the OEM consistent with the requirements of GPLv3. The OEM can publish anauthenticated record of the installation permission issued, indexed by theVehicle Identification Number-without publishing the car owner'spersonal information-so that public and private parties can be assured thatno surreptitious modification of vehicle software occurs.