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Dish Network Dishes Source Code for DVR

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the half-the-battle dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to Dish Network they are accommodating 'requests for the portions of the DISH 921 DVR source code that are subject to the GNU Public License, or GPL. In compliance with the terms of the GPL, we are making this source code available to the public to download. Please note that the DISH 921 DVR software also includes some proprietary elements that are not subject to the GPL. You cannot create a working DISH 921 DVR software build without the additional proprietary code. Do not replace or add any software to the DISH 921 DVR with items compiled from these source trees. Doing so will void all warranties and cause the unit to fail.'"

1 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Dragged kicking and screaming into the light... by pieterh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of the ways companies try to avoid complying with the spirit of the GPL, even if they comply with its letter:

    1. The "Vogon" strategy... the source code is available on the web site but you have to go down the stairs, look in the bottom shelf of a filing cabinet behind a locked door with a sign "beware of the leopard" on it.

    2. The "Proprietary pieces" strategy... the source code is released, oh yes, but with significant pieces missing.

    3. The "Under development" strategy... coming soon folks, as soon as we get it ready.

    All these are quite hard to sustain.

    But what really amazes me is how slow companies like Dish are to understand the benefits that the GPL brings them. They are building on top of commodity software. They have access to hundreds of skilled engineers at little or no cost. These people ask nothing better than to act as a volunteer R&D department, in exchange for appropriate credit and possibly some long term kudos.

    But no... instead we get these "compliance" releases, basically useless.

    The key is this: if you are selling a device and your software is GPLd, you have created a platform and you can potentially sell 10, 100 times more if you provide a decent product at a reasonable cost.

    Not only does it make excellent business sense to re-release improvements to GPL'd software as cleanly and transparently as possibly, but it makes sense to release proprietary software exactly the same way.

    --
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