Tivo is an example. But it can reasonably be construed as an example where the content companies are forcing Tivo to do so.
I want examples where nobody is forcing such behaviour, but they still take away freedom. Such examples I hope will convince more people that GPLv3 is right in prohibiting them. The thin client example is a very good one for these purposes, anybody know who makes them? Link to a website selling the product? Who are schools that actually bought the product? Can somebody (from Bangalore?) volunteer to find out this information.
Thanks Krishna
Ajay Pal Singh Atwal ajaypal@bbsbec.org wrote: Maybe someone more knowledgeable can tell you more about it, but tivo is one example of such a device. Maybe you can read this as well http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1915643,00.asp
----- Krishna Pagadala wrote:
Hi All
Sorry for the late response. I was travelling.
I made this quote about copy protection at the conference.
I would like to clarify two things. First, thin clients were an example. I work with VXL Instruments, and we make thin clients. None of our thin clients have this lock down, and I don't know of any competitor who does this either. Some folks in my company wanted this, but I explained how copy protection violates the GNU spirit. We do not build copy protection into any image containing free software.
Secondly, I do know software vendors who sell embedded "images" containing free software, that "lock down" to a particular hardware. An image is like a .iso that programmes into Flash memory in an embedded system. It contains a boot loader, kernel, file system, and other stuff. One of our vendors has been giving us an image that picks up some signatures (maybe the MAC) from the board it first boots up on. Then if you move the flash to another board, it won't work.
This is a growing menace, and arises from the widespread use of copy protection by proprietary software vendors. It is easy to make companies realise that because their software is derived from free source, they should not lock down their "binaries". However, since GPLv2 does not cover this kind of DRM, there are no legal means of stopping folks from doing this.
Hope this clarifies :)
Regards, Saurabh
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Krishna Pagadala -
Saurabh Jai n (सौर भ जैन)