On Wednesday 13 June 2007 19:15:42 Alexandre Oliva wrote:
Wrong! Anyone with half a brain can make the distinction. What TiVO did is
entirely legal - they fully complied with the GPLv2. Note that what they
*DON'T* allow people to do is run whatever version of whatever software they
want on their hardware. They have that right - its the "Free Software
Foundation" and the GPL - regardless of version - is a *SOFTWARE* license.
TiVO never stopped people from copying, modifying or distributing the code -
what they did was say "The code is GPL'd, the hardware is restricted" -
ie: "You can do what you want with the code, but you can only run compiled
version of it that we provide on our hardware". Why is that legal? Because
TiVO produces the hardware and sells it to you with a certain *LICENSE* -
because it does contain hardware covered under any number of patents. That
license grants you the right to use the patents - in this case algorithms -
provided you comply with the terms of the license. (Just like the GPL gives
you the right to copy, modify and distribute GPL'd code as long as you comply
with its terms)
If you believe otherwise then you are sadly mistaken. Now stop parroting the
FSF's worn and tired tripe.
DRH
PS: Looking at your .sig I guess maybe you can't do that without getting
kicked out of the FSF-LA
--
Dialup is like pissing through a pipette. Slow and excruciatingly painful.
-
