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GPL Violations By D-Link and Boxee

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hard-to-be-honest dept.

An anonymous reader submitted a link to a bit of a rant on GPL issues connected to D-Link and Boxee. They spend quite a bit of time explaining "Tivoization is a dangerous attempt to curtail users' freedom: the right to modify your software will become meaningless if none of your computers let you do it. GPLv3 stops tivoization by requiring the distributor to provide you with whatever information or data is necessary to install modified software on the device."

3 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. No GPL-3 software means no violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This guy doesn't make the smallest bit of sense. Nobody uses GPL-3 software. Almost no software is under GPL-3.

    1. Re:No GPL-3 software means no violation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Spot on.

      I just checked the XBMC source and it's licensed under GPL 2, and I believe the Linux kernel is currently still licensed under GPL 2 as well.

      So basically, there is no story here at all.

  2. TiVo has a valid point in securing their platform! by Kaldaien · · Score: 1, Redundant

    TiVo would be obsolete if it publicly allowed modification of its software, because Cable Labs would withdraw TiVo's permission to transfer recordings in any capacity. And this capability is one of the reasons I will never use a cable company or IPTV's inferior DVR solution. The TiVo software is outdated (granted, I do not own a TiVo premiere, because without the OLED front display, I view it as a downgrade), but it still does what it does better than anything else on the market. I do not get why people rag on TiVo for this - all of my TVs all the way back to my 30" SONY Trinitron FD (circa 2004) run a Linux kernel, and none of them are modifiable either, yet nobody ever complains about that. I am sure SONY has sold more TVs running Linux than TiVo has subscribers, and SONY is not the only manufacturer to run Linux, so.... what gives?