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On Wednesday 18 July 2007, Alan McKinnon <alan@××××××××××××××××.za> wrote |
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about 'Re: [gentoo-user] 2 to 3??': |
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> On Tuesday 17 July 2007, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: |
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> > > The TiVo thing was completely within the word and spirit of the |
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> > > GPL. |
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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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> TiVo did just that and got the A-OK signal and thumbs up from the FSF's |
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> lawyers. |
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That's because you *could* swap out the software on early TiVos. |
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> Sometime later, someone had a hissy fit, FSF reversed their |
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> stated position and suddenly Tivo becomes spawn of satan. |
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Because they started artificially limiting users' freedoms 0, 1, and |
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partially 3. |
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> Tivo had no option, their content providers would never have given them |
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> a license to redistribute content without the mods they did |
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It's not my (or my community's, or my code's) job to support your business |
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model. If you can't play by the license, then you can't use the software. |
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> It's not the software that is crippled, it's the hardware. |
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No, it's the software because they haven't given it all to us. For |
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software to run on the device it was *designed* to run on it's required to |
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be signed; therefore, the signature is part of the binary and a derivative |
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of a GPLv2 work. That work distributed presumably under the GPLv2, which |
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means the source ("preferred format for making modifications") must be |
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provided, and TiVo has not yet published the necessary tools for us to |
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generate our own signatures. |
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They are therefore limiting freedom 1, which limits freedom 0, and |
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indirectly freedom 3, because the community cannot benefit. |
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> So, in what way have Tivo removed people's freedom as |
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> granted by the GPL? |
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Artificially limiting freedoms 0, 1, and 3. The restriction is |
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fundamentally different from a RAM or HD space limit; a binary that does |
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nothing but play pong (well within the hardware capabilities of the TiVo) |
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is still not allowed to run without the signature. |
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Personally, I think TiVo COULD be called out for violating GPLv2, but IANAL |
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and Eben is and declined to file suit against them. Under the GPLv3, |
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users' freedoms are better protected, and it's quite clear that TiVo |
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would/will be in violation of that license. |
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-- |
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Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. |
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bss03@××××××××××.net ((_/)o o(\_)) |
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ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' |
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http://iguanasuicide.org/ \_/ |
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