Jim Richardson <warlock@xxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:40:53 +0000,
> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Verily I say unto thee, that Peter Köhlmann spake thusly:
>>> [H]omer wrote:
>>>> Verily I say unto thee, that chrisv spake thusly:
>>
>>>>> How would chasing Tivo away from OSS benefit the world?
>>>>
>>>> By ensuring that those who modify and use Free Software can
>>>> continue to modify and use it as the GPL intended.
>>>
>>> Thats fine. You are one Tivo less, but now you are free to tinker
>>> with it.
>>>
>>> Spot the flaw
>>
>> Well we were free to tinker with it (the software) /before/ Tivo's
>> interference, so losing their "contribution" would be no loss at all.
>
> You don't lose their code, it's still GPL (where required)
>
>> Fortunately Tivo do not have a monopoly on Set Top Boxes, but this is a
>> little late for those who already spent money on a Tivo, only to find
>> that the software (perhaps even software that the Tivo customer
>> developed or contributed to) was effectively unmodifiable (insofar as
>> the modified version will not run on the hardware they paid for). The
>> fact is that Tivo has no moral right to restrict others' Free Software
>> in this fashion.
>
> They have every right to follow the licence to the letter. That's what
> it's for.
>
In this case, of course, they have exploited an unintentional loophole,
which is *not* what the licence was intended to achieve, it was a
mistake on the part of the authors, which has been exploited by people
who know and understand the intention of the licence, but have found a
way to get around that intention, to pervert the licence to some other
usage to which it had been intended.
Of course, if it had been an error, then they would've changed their
approach by now, but they have not. Their approach, from the beginning,
has been to exploit the loophole, to take the work of thousands of
people, to use it for business gain, and yet refuse those /same people/
the rights they have themselves exploited for their business.
I appreciate that in a "kill the competition" business model, then
exploiting loopholes will be seen by many as legitimate activity. We
have people in the EU who are currently exploiting a loophole in the way
VAT is charged. We have people who exploit the hopes of migrants into
the UK by charging them thousands to smuggle them here, only to enslave
them in prostitution or crime in perpetuity.
Tivo, and most people here, know what the GPL was intended to achieve.
They have deliberately perverted that intention, as have many other
companies, in order to use Linux in the same way that they can use BSD.
To take, without giving back, to restrict the rights of the recepient of
the software to recompile and to use the software in any way they like.
I could understand Tivo having made a mistake in the first place, but I
will never accept that this is anything other than direct exploitation
of a loophole and of the efforts of thousands of people. Tivo's
business is not based on their efforts, it's based on the efforts of
thousands of others being used as unpaid labour. Another word for
unpaid labour, is, of course, exploitation. Tivo have had plenty of
time to clean up their act, rather, they have no intention of ending
their exploitation.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
