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DishPVR 721 Review
An anonymous submitter writes "TiVo's not the only Linux based PVR in the US market anymore. Echostar's Dish Network is now offering their own Linux based PVR, the dual tuner, 120 GB DP721. The first review can be found here at DBSTalk.com." Another anonymous person (how hard is it to give yourself a handle? sheesh) describes the gizmo and notes a possible problem: "Echostar is now shipping a Linux based set-top box called the DishPVR-721 that won best of show at CES. It has a 120GB drive, a pentium like processor and supports dual channel PVR. Also, from my call to their technical support this morning, they aren't planning on giving up any of the GPLed source code they have modified. I've got one in front of me right now, ugly silver box but nice specs. I'm going to open it up this morning and start taking it apart."
How do you know they modified any? If they did, I doubt it's much, or would be of any use to anybody anyway. TiVo's modified code is only to get linux working on that box. All the stuff that makes a TiVo useful is not GPL. My guess is the same would be true for this box.
Free Mac Mini
Now honestly, do you really expect their technical support to have any idea whether or not they will be releasing the modified code? These are people who explain how to use the box, not the corporate strategys of the company. I'd be surprised if more than 3 of their PVR techs even know what Linux, outside something the DishPVR uses. I supervise people in a Cable modem call center and 2/3rds of the people I work with who fix peoples computers don't even know what Linux is.
Would you trust a company whose CEO is a professional gambler [guardian.co.uk]:
While gambling has a stigma in many people's minds, to be a successful professional gambler is actually quite demanding. Typically professional gamblers have to be very good at mathematics as well as data and strategy analysis. They also must also be able to evaluate situations logically and dispassionately (especially true in sports wagering) and not be swayed by emotions and hype. Furthermore they will also need good money management skills if they want to be around for long. Not to mention perseverance and the discipline to takes to be successful in the long run. Read any books by Ken Uston or Bob McCune and you'll come to appreciate the amount of work and analysis it takes to be a professional gambler. Any fool can gamble, but only a select few people can gamble successfully over the long haul.
So yes, I would trust a company whose CEO was a professional gambler. It's a better background than many other CEOs have had.
The thing is the GPL won't get thrown out in court. The reason is that it does not, in any way, restrict your right to do things under copyright law. It's only when I distribute it that I have to deal with the GPL, and under normal cirumstances i wouldn't be allowed to do that at all.
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You go through all the trouble to develop a program to be used as a PVR in a computer; you give it out for free so anybody can use it, and ask for only that they do the same when the make it better. Then somebody comes along, takes your work, modifies it, and sells it, claiming it be their own.
Tip: Not everything is GPL. Those that that aren't should have written from scratch, or from licensed code. According to the story, Echostar used GPL'ed code, and hence, are required to, by the GPL license, to GPL their code.
What if this was proprietary code that they took and used? I believe you'd have a different view then, because it's generally called "IP Theft." Keven Mitnick served years in jail for something similar, and he wasn't even getting any financial benefit.
Well, guess what? If they don't GPL their code, they violated copyright. Plian and simple.
My highschool bio teacher always said,
"When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME.
Dude, they don't have to GPL THEIR code, as long as they didn't use someone elses code as a base.
The kernel is just one small part.
As countless other people have said, they probably have a nice module or even *gasp* a user-space program that does all the neat stuff.
How they license that stuff is their choice, much like how I license my KDE applications is my own choice.
as long as their work doesn't modify the existing GPL code. So they just add some scripting to do what they want using a standard kernel (not an unlikely scenario). They can copyright their code or keep it secret; it's their choice. They need not release any of it as long as it does not incorporate any code that is already under GPL copyright. It would, in effect, simply be an application that runs on the Linux OS (like an accounting application or a database application).
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!