Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

TiVo Goes After Sites Hosting Image Backups

Posted by timothy on from the net-loss dept.

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."

3 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I smell FSF lawyers... by Genom · · Score: 0, Troll

    I am reminded of the Linksys router debunkle. TiVo is REQUIRED to give out the source code, if somebody asks for it. If you want to use the free source code, you have to follow GPL's rules.

    Right, but they're under no such obligation with regards to the binaries. I doubt the images they're having a problem with are source-based...so I'm not sure how far the GPL would go in a situation like this. Then again, IANAL either ^^

    TiVo better hope that they aren't trying to hide any "security by obsurity" subroutines.

    Access to the GPL'd source may not tell you everything either...they (conceivably) could link into a binary-only non-GPL'd kernel module or library that does something...and aside from reverse-engineering it,l we wouldn't be able to tell what it was doing in there.

  2. Re:DMCA? DMCA. by InsaneGeek · · Score: 0, Troll

    Why thank you, I always like it when the grammar police come around...

    FYI you much be new here I'm a frequent grammar nazi offender get used to it.

  3. Shoulda used BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is why TiVO should have developed on BSD instead of Linux. Then TiVO would own all the code that they spent their own time and money on.