Then taking it all the way down to the hardware, every user of x86 should be required to agree to a license agreement to use an x86 processor since it 'interprets' opcodes on-the-fly thus everything that uses x86 is under an intel license QED. I don't know the full details of the thesis theme but use an API doesn't constitute violation of the GPL v2 - see: tivo and thousands of routers, wireless cards, etc.
The are multiple licenses for the x86 ISA. And companies that produce common chipsets specifically allow open development on top of them. They make more money that way.
Tivo releases what they see as either not a competitive advantage or a burden to maintain. Just like Nvidia releases the shim but nothing relating the how the hardware works - it's a business they aren't here to plant daisies in the FOSS fields there here to make a bottom line.
