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Final Draft of GPLv3 Allows Novell-Microsoft Deal
famicommie writes "All of Novell's fingernail biting has been for naught. In a display of forgiveness and bridge building on behalf of the FSF, ZDNet reports that the final draft of the GPLv3 will close the infamous MS-Novell loophole while allowing deals made previously to continue. From the article: 'The final, last-call GPLv3 draft bans only future deals for what it described as tactical reasons in a 32-page explanation of changes. That means Novell doesn't have to worry about distributing software in SLES that's governed by the GPLv3 ... Drafting the new license has been a fractious process, but Eben Moglen, the Columbia University law school professor who has led much of the effort, believes consensus is forming. That agreement is particularly important in the open-source realm, where differing license requirements can erect barriers between different open-source projects.'"
This will come as a huge shock to you: It costs money for each unit that Tivo produces. I know, you can't understand the whole hardware business model, but its true. Software and hardware are two different things. Believe it or not, when you have a license to free software it doesn't give you any rights to the hardware that it happens to run on. Amazing, isn't it? So here's the kicker, if you don't like Tivo, don't buy it - make your own hardware and provide your own services and run the Tivo software on that. You're free to do so. But don't try to claim that the hardware has to be open just because the software is.
free licence ehh? and it forbids people from doing stuff? and tells them they MUST do other stuff?
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