You're probably hinting at tivoization, right?As much as I respect Torvalds, he really doesn't quite understand how the GPLv2 doesn't protect us enough from corporate greed.
This long post has one simple solution: the GPLv3. It is very contentious, but our tech-broligarcy would've been greatly subdued if more folks used this license instead of other "permissive" (read. Doormat) licenses.