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A Ready-Made MythTV Set-Top Box in Australia
Anonymous Coward writes "Australian Personal Computer magazine published a review of a new all-in-one set-top-box based on linux.
A quick analysis of the device yields some cheats/hacks that not only allow you to enable the advertisment skipping feature they disabled, but could allow system compromise.
The system also runs a GPL version of MythTV - anyone else see any licensing issues?" Only if they don't follow the GPL.
the source is in the iso.
-NiPs
They don't NEED to give a link to the source. They only need to supply it free (or cost of media) if someone who has a binary asks. You, unless you bought this device, have no right to ask the company for the source. Nothing will stop recipients of it from spreading it, but the mere fact that a company looked at a GPL'd product doesn't mean they're obligated to host it for everyone.
It's a common myth that the source code to GPL'd software must be made available for download off an FTP site or something similar. That is not what the GPL requires. The GPL requires you make the source available upon request. That being said, it would appear the source is being distributed, anyways.
according to the GPL...I thought they only had to provide source to paying customers at their request. No one ever said they had to offer it up for free...
That may be what you read into the GPL, but you cannot cite any text to that affect.
The GPL is pretty general about the issue of how to provide the source code. It primarily reinforces that 1) you have to provide it to those who ask for it and 2) it must be for a reasonable fee only to cover costs.
The system also runs a GPL version of MythTV - anyone else see any licensing issues?
Commercial does not mean proprietary. Selling commercial products using Open Source is great - it often helps pay OSS programmers rent.
Why on earth do the Slashbots immediately assume anyone selling OSS is a) violating the GPL and b) evil ?
Those are Australian Dollars.
Multiply by 0.65 to get the price in USD.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'
I heard about this a bit early - I did some digging around on their website.
The openly admit it runs MythTV (once you find the comments), and that the source code is available ON the device itself...
Technically speaking, I think that actually qualifies for compliance.
There was a large thread about this recently on the mythtv user's forum.
I got 1300 on a currency calculator.. From the looks of the source for this thing it's a via based motherboard (via-rhine chipset) which means it's prolly either whatever via chipset mobo shuttle has out, or an epia based board. Either way, doing some rough calculations, you can put together this whole damn box for like under a grand... In fact Fry's had a media mini-itx case here from somebody (non-shuttle I believe) for like 400 with the pretty little facepanel and dials and crap) Figure in an AMD or Intel cpu at 50-200 bucks depending on how fast you want this thing to be, plus a hard drive (100 bux since their min is 80 gig, and that's being pushy), plus a capture card (Happauge PVR 250 is like 150$ here), and a DVD drive (30-80 depending on brand), plus maybe 90 bucks for a 512 or 180 for 2 sticks of PC3200 DDR.
8 0=1110$
:)
400+50+100+150+30+90=820$
400+200+100+150+80+1
So even buying everything off the shelf you could probably put together one of these systems for less than that price. Coupled with the fact that they should be mass producing these bastards they should be selling them for sub 700 bucks, and probably 400-500 if they want to be competitive.
Just my many thousand cents
-- vranash
Company representatives and developers are in contact with the MythTV developers and participate in the MythTV mailinglists.
The source is in the ISO. Some people identified some minor issues of non-compliance but the company already made clear that they wanted to comply fully and also want to contribute some things to the project.
If all these GPL fanatics would do some research before crying out loud...
The only thing you mentioned that mythtv can't do is record things you might like based on viewing habits.
Plus mythtv gives you an integrated weather viewer, photo gallery, caller id display, web browser, Multiple frontend and backend setups (Hello having the backend in the basement doing all the recording and nice little epia based wireless boxes upstairs doing the frontend stuff). Hell, once the mfd stuff is done (music will probably be in the next release with video and tv to follow) you won't even have to configure anything. Just plop a new box down on the lan and it'll automagically get access to the backend and livetv, etc.
also, your cost is 0, where sagetv costs 50 or 60 bucks.
Hell, you can even get knoppmyth, which makes installation a twenty minute breeze (that's a complete linux install).
Call me when sagetv catches up.
Andrew Jamieson who works for the company in question posted to the mythtv list today and they have the full intention of being GPL compilent (if they're not already!).
According to the email, the developer sent a message to Issac (lead developer for Myth) and I'm assuming that they're going to be working together to make Myth a better product.
Don't listen to the 'tards, this is good for Mythtv.
--Ajay
From the owner's manual available here
GNU GPL LicenseYour Rights Under the GNU GPL
The software used in the Home Media Centre is based on GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) software, with some further enhancements and modifications. This gives you, the purchaser, certain legal rights including the right to examine, modify and re-distribute the source code without the permission of Development One. To allow you to do these things, Development One has placed a copy of the Home Media Centre source code on the unit itself. In order to access the source code you will need to connect a VGA monitor, keyboard and mouse to the appropriate ports on the back of the unit. You can then logon as user "root" with the password "HomeMediaCentre". You can find the source code in various directories under "/root/hmc/". For further information regarding the software and the modifications you may make to it, refer to the MythTV PVR Project at http://www.mythtv.org. However, be aware that you may only modify and distribute the source code in accordance with the GNU GPL. Before you do any of these things please ensure you fully understand your obligations by viewing the full text of the GNU GPL at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.
The GNU GPL and Your Warranty
You have been provided with a warranty by Development One. This warranty covers the parts, labour and software components of your Home Media Centre. In order to maintain this warranty you must meet certain obligations. One of these obligations is that you do not modify the software on your Home Media Centre in a manner not authorised by Development One (see your warranty card for further details and other obligations.) This warranty does not in any way derogate from the legal rights you have under the GNU GPL. You may examine the source code without affecting your warranty. You may also modify any copy of the source code not stored on your Home Media Centre without affecting your warranty. However be aware that modifying the original copy of the source code on your Home Media Centre, recompiling the source code or any other unauthorised modification of the software on your Home Media Centre will void your warranty. A Home Media Centre which has had unauthorised modifications, whether made pursuant to your rights under the GNU GPL or otherwise, is not covered by your warranty.
So if I want to distribute a commerical product using GPL code I must seperate the GPL code from the commerical code? Differentiate then at a function based level? Class Level? File Level? Logical Level? Can I re-write functions internal to the GPL project to get the output I need?
nonononono.
First, decide if you want your product to be GPL. If not, then you can't use any GPL code at all, on the level you're talking. If you want to include GPL software on your CD, but your actual program is separate and independent of the GPL stuff, no problem. You must provide sources for the GPL product, but not yours.
Second, commercial or non-commercial is irrelevant. Forget about it. The only issue is when you charge for the source code, you can't charge more than "reasonable cost of media" or somesuch.
Third, if you don't want your program to be GPL, but you want to use open source code, make sure you link dynamically to libraries that are LGPL, or another open source license that allows dynamic linking in that fashion.
Fourth, you have to deal with license compatibility. I think it's possible to link to a GPL library statically, or to incorporate GPL code into yours without GPLing your own code, but you have to release your code under a GPL-compatible license. That area is complicated and I don't completely understand it myself.
So, in summary, if you want your program to be GPL, you don't have to worry about separating your code from theirs. You only have to make sure you keep all copyright notices intact, and you note what changes you made to the code and place your own copyright notices around your own code. The end result will all be GPL, so you just want to make sure your contributions are noted. This is important in the future because if you don't, and the core developers all agree to change the license, they could change the license on your code without your permission, but they don't know they need your permission because you didn't mark your code properly.
The GPL doesn't deal with commercial vs non-commercial uses of the software, it only deals with distribution--all distribution.
If you dynamically link to LGPL libraries, you must provide the source code upon request to those libraries, but you do not have to provide the source code to your program nor do you have to GPL your program. If a GPL library can reasonably be expected to be installed on someone's machine, you don't have to GPL your code, I think. Because it's a system library. So you don't have to GPL your code that uses the WinAPI and winelib to compile, since you can reasonably expect the end-user to have winelib. I think. I could be wrong.
Remember, I'm not a lawyer, and the answers to all of your questions can be found at the source.
Like what I said? You might like my music
You are somewhat close but if you don't know what you are taling about and are not willing to READ the GPL, stop posting "I thoughts". They can EITHER
1) Provide the source with the binaries to everyone they give the binary to ("customers") and not place restrictions on who they give it to.
or
2) They can provide a written offer to those that they give the binary to to get access to the source for a "reasonable" copying fee. This is where the third party stuff starts coming in because now third parties can use this written offer to request and get the source from the vendor
The relevant section of the GPL says
--- Liberty in our Lifetime
Myth doesn't have "season passes" becuase that's a Tivo term. Other than that Myth allows you to do everything that a season pass does. In fact the options for tailoring the bahvior goes well beyond that of Tivos season pass.
False. _Any_ third party.
3b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange
but they seem to be using option 3a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange