On Jun 14, 2007, "Chris Friesen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Alexandre Oliva wrote: >> But see, I'm not talking about getting permission to hack the >> hardware. I'm only talking about getting permission to hack the Free >> Software in it. > No you're not...you're talking about being able to hack the software > *and load it back onto the original hardware*. Yes. You wouldn't impose restrictions on modifying the software like that, now would you? Even though the GPL says you can't impose further restrictions on modification and distribution. >> It's your position that mingles the issues and permits people to use >> the hardware to deprive users of freedom over the software that >> they're entitled to have. > The software license controls the software. If the hardware has > restrictions on it that limit what software it will run, then that is > unrelated to the software license. As in, the license controls the software. If a patent creates restrictions that limit what you can do with the software, then that is unrelated to the software license. As in, the license controls the software. If a discriminatory contract limits what you can do with the software, then that is unrelated to the software license. As in, the license controls the software. If I send you the source code, but it happens to be protected by a key that only the hardware can decode, and it won't decode for you, then that is unrelated to the software license. Is that so, really? > There is nothing stopping you from taking the code for the tivo, > modifying it, distributing it, or even running it on other hardware. True. But TiVO is still imposing further restrictions on how I can modify the software stored in their device, while reserving that ability to itself. This is wrong. This is not "in kind". This is not "tit-for-tat". Tit-for-tat is: if they can, then I can too, and if I can't, then they can't either. > Suppose I had some machine that will only run microsoft-signed > binaries. Would it be at all related to any software license that this > machine won't let me run linux? That would be an unfortunate machine to have, but if Linux or some other GPLed software was not shipped in it, then I don't see how this is relevant to this discussion. It's not about the hardware, it's about the software in it, and about passing on the freedoms related with it. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ FSF Latin America Board Member http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED], gcc.gnu.org} Free Software Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED], gnu.org} - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
