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On 18 Jul 2007, at 13:38, Alan McKinnon wrote: |
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> On Tuesday 17 July 2007, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: |
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>> |
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>> It was *barely* within the word, and definitely not within the spirit |
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>> of the GPL. Don't beleive me? Ask anyone at the FSF or RMS himself. |
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>> They wrote the thing. |
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> |
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> ... |
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> Tivo had no option, their content providers would never have given |
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> them |
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> a license to redistribute content without the mods they did, and the |
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> shareholders would never have approved of Tivo trying to go against |
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> the |
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> content provider's conditions. |
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Um... isn't a Tivo a device for recording TV programs? |
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In this case Tivo _has_ no content providers of their own. |
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As I understand it Tivo is just a fancy video recorder - a |
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particularly advanced one for its time, but that's all. |
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In these litigation-prone times I can see why Tivo bow to the content |
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providers, but really they have no more right to tell customers how |
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to use their device than LG or Philips would have to say "you're |
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allowed to record soap operas with this VHS recorder we sold you, but |
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not full-length movies". |
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As far as I'm concerned the GPL is a license that protects consumers. |
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That is the intent of it, as has been explained by Mike Edenfield so |
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well a couple of times in the last 24 hours. Had Tivo written their |
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own operating system from the ground up it would have cost them a lot |
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more (in time, money, resources), and they could easily have been |
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undercut by a competitor producing a better product based on Linux. |
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Under GPL v3 the competitor's success will at least ensure they have |
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the money to defend against lawsuits from the content providers. |
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The sad thing for Tivo & their proponents is that now - what? 5 years |
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later? less? - you can buy a Chinese DVR (digital video recorder) for |
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recording your TV programs for $100 or so. I'll bet the manufacturers |
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of those don't suck it up to "the content providers" the way Tivo has |
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and I'm sure lots of them will allow you to dump any program you've |
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recorded as DivX to CD-R or as DVD and give it to friends or family. |
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Tivo may have made bucks by being early to the market but the western |
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manufacturing philosophy of treating customers as secondary to the |
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media companies will come back & bite us all on the ass when |
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customers choose to shop elsewhere. You can't compete with giving the |
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customer what he wants. |
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|
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Stroller. |
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-- |
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