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On 18 Jul 2007, at 18:40, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: |
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>>> ... |
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>>> Linus has said it several times that he was ok with the thing Tivo |
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>>> did. |
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>>> |
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>>> And Tivo is the reason for that clause in GPLv3. |
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>> |
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>> I've seen no evidence that he said this AFTER spending a big chunk of |
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>> his own money on hardware, plugging it into his ethernet network and |
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>> finding himself frustrated by an inability to copy shows recorded in |
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>> his living room to the Tivo in his den. |
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> |
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> a) nobody is forced to buy a tivo. If you don't like it, don't buy |
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> it and you |
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> don't have problems. |
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> |
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> b) AFAIR Linus owns a Tivo himself. |
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> |
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> c) it is morally wrong to try to dictate HARDWARE licence problems |
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> with a |
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> SOFTWARE licence |
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I'm always amazed at how the internet enables folks to _reply to_ |
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discussion points without actually _answering_ them. But I gather |
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that repeating a point three times is nearly as effective as three |
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people in agreement each making that point once, so maybe that is |
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your intent? |
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a) You ignore all the comments in other posts about the ethical |
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aspects of selling locked hardware: |
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- end-user's ownership of the hardware they purchase; is the locking |
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made clear at time of purchase? |
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- anti-competitive practices. |
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- environmental damage when obsolete locked hardware cannot be re- |
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purposed. It must be disposed of in landfill, lead solder, mercury & |
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whatnot leaking dramatically into the water table because the |
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firmware cannot be upgraded to one that actually works. |
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|
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These matters are our concern whether or not we personally buy |
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Product_X. Only if you have never made a casual or uninformed |
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purchase, have never found that a product you have bought does not |
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work _quite_ as advertised will you be unable to appreciate these |
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points. As Mr Boyd Smith Jr. points out so eloquently, it is not our |
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responsibility to support Vendor_X's business model - if I find open- |
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source code running on a device I have purchased I have a reasonable |
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expectation that I should be able to modify that code (as the author |
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intended) and run that on the same hardware I own. Hopefully new |
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European legislation requiring manufacturers to be responsible for |
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disposing of hardware they have sold will have some knock-on effects |
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on hardware locking, but it's hardly a direct way of dealing with the |
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problem. |
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b) I never said Linus didn't own a Tivo himself. |
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What I said was that he might see things differently were |
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"Tivotisation" to _cost him personally_ time, inconvenience, |
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frustration and expense. |
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I can't determine in what circumstances this might actually occur, |
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but I know I'd be shouting blue murder to the rafters if I wrote |
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thousands of lines of code, gave them away for free for anyone to use |
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and then some bugger sold that software back to me and prevented me |
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from changing it when I needed to. |
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The active part of the last sentence is "when needed" - we can |
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discuss this forever on the internets, it's all nice and arty & farty |
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to talk about morals & philosophies of freedom & software licensing |
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but I challenge anyone not to feel offended when those ideals have |
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kicked you in the teeth. |
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c) WTF!?!?!? Can you justify this statement? |
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Stroller. |
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-- |
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