Comments | tivolovers: TiVo and GPLv3

zonereyrie in tivolovers

TiVo and GPLv3

Jun 03, 2007 01:09

OK, I saw this article and some others in the past week. The GPLv3 is the General Public License, version 3. What is it? The GPL is the license that covers a great deal of open source software or free software. (Never say they're the same thing within earshot of Richard Stallman. I've been there for that. ;-)) In particular, it is the license ( Read more... )

gpl, software

Comments 6

doc_quixote June 3 2007, 06:28:34 UTC

The Linux kernel may or may not go to GPL V3. Linus (the guy who holds the trademarks and a sizeable chunk of the copyrights) is a pragmatic sort of fellow, and has been conspicuously absent from the chorus of people criticising TiVo. He's also been... less than enthusiastic... about the GPL license. He's gone from being strongly opposed (to early drafts) to being willing to accept that it isn't inherently stupid (in recent drafts). But it's a long way from there to being willing to undertake the work of relicensing.

Personally, I wish the TiVo folks would allow end-user kernels, but I understand the legal and technical support issues that precludes them from doing so.

doc_quixote June 3 2007, 06:29:54 UTC

about the GPL V3 license.

zonereyrie June 3 2007, 06:39:01 UTC

Yeah, that's why it is still a big *if*. With the early drafts, Linus was dead-set against v3, stating that he would NOT adopt it for Linux as it stood then. The early drafts were fairly harsh on DRM.

The final draft out now is much more reasonable I think, and with each draft Linus has softened his position to the point of considering it. But it is still an if - and even if he decides to go to v3, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of contributors who would need to be tracked down and approve of moving their code under the new license in order to move it all over. And if anyone refuses, the code would need to be replace.

It won't happen overnight.

doc_quixote June 3 2007, 06:45:24 UTC

there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of contributors

... or their estates, in a few cases, or their corporate legal department in others ...

Motivations: spyware anonymous June 8 2007, 11:25:17 UTC

GPLv3 requires that users be able to load modified kernels for two reasons.

One is so that users can remove spyware. The TiVo gathers data about what you watch, and it sends that personal data back to headquarters. If you trust TiVo with your personal data, you can leave the spyware in. If you don't, then GPLv3 says you should be able to use a version of the software with the spyware removed.

The other is the freedom to control your devices. Today, TiVo blocks the copying of some content, but the point is that TiVo can do whatever they want. If tomorrow, most of our computing is done on TiVo like locked-down boxes, then free software users will only be able to do whatever a handful of companies decide they can do. This would turn the GNU+Linux system into just another user-screwing operating system, like Windows, like Mac.

I'm not arguing for/against you, but I just wanted to expand the description of why.

Re: Motivations: spyware zonereyrie June 8 2007, 19:51:30 UTC

You can already opt-out of all data collection by calling TiVo. And that's a higher level function that isn't in the GPL software, to my knowledge, so even the GPLv3 wouldn't allow you to remove that software. Only the low-level software in the unit is GPL, all of the higher level 'user land' software is not. You might be able to put something in the GPL layer to block the connection, of course.

I do understand the FSF's motivation, and I've met Stallman a few times and heard him go off on 'free software' vs. 'open source'. He's a man on a mission.