TiVo Goes After Sites Hosting Image Backups

TiVo User writes "TiVo has apparently decided to come down on sites that hosted 'image backups,' essentially tarballs of the OS for the machine, which just happens to be Linux. TiVo owners use the images to install on new, larger hard drives (increasing the recording capacity of the unit) or to recover a dead system. Why TiVo has a problem with this, but allows others to sell the same images for profit is beyond me." Read on for the rest of TiVo User's comments. "The images are not used to create pirate TiVos (as a subscription service, TiVo justifiably controls access to their database tightly), so there wouldn't appear to be much harm in allowing them to be hosted. TiVo has always walked a fine line in allowing the user community to mod their units, perhaps they have finally stepped over that line, considering there are free alternatives that are less restrictive. To their credit, the legal mumbo jumbo in their cease letter is non-threatening compared to most other of this type, but it's interesting the letter draws no distinction between the portions of the software that are Linux, and therefore expressly distributable, and those that are proprietary to TiVo."

Comments

Re:What's the problem?

[DrEldarion]

Yes, but this is Slasdot, where everyone thinks that, regardless of law, they have the god-given right to distribute whatever copyrighted material they want and then yell and scream when people get in trouble for it.

Re:Of course you can...

[base3]

So you're saying that you're surprised a company whose business model is based on extorting a monthly fee for a VCR is acting like a jackbooted thug and violating the GPL? I'm not surprised at all.