[vlc-devel] GPLv3 again

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Hmm, wrong email account used.

Needless to say this is my individual opinion, and I actually have no idea 
what the official view of my employer is, if any.

On Wednesday 25 July 2007 02:34:54 Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
> On Saturday 21 July 2007 20:39:42 Neil Woodall wrote:
> > As the top technical person in a company that makes IC for TV's (and
> > other devices) and supplies software to run those TV's, the anti TIVO
> > portion of GPLv3 will cause a lot of problems.
>
> Certainly.
>
> > We are now seeing customer acceptance of using Linux as an OS for the
> > devices, but if GPLv3 means that we have to supply enough of the source
> > code to allow unrestricted use of the hardware...that could be a problem.
>
> Yes. At least, it's not as bad for VLC than the kernel.
>
> > When the user installs their own software and the TV breaks, is it a
> > hardware defect or a software defect...and how do you prove that it's
> > because someone replaced the software with their own?
>
> Userland is not as bad as kernel - the underlying software could signal
> non-warranted modifications. But it remains an extra cost for sure.
>
> > If the user installs software that bypasses DRM, does that break the
> > license for the TV set manufacturer and cause them not to sell TV's with
> > that feature anymore?
>
> It is weird to implement DRM with GPL (even v2) code. In any case, you're
> going to have to give up the source code so that a desktop PC will
> presumably be able to break the DRM. Or DRM is really going to be done in
> hardware, which is beyond the point.
>
> While I do buy the maintenance argument, I barely buy the DRM one.
>
> > Consumer embedded devices typically require a lot of IP licenses to make
> > them useful. Violating one of those licenses in a way that causes it to
> > be withdrawn from the manufacturer could make the device useless and
> > force the manufacturer to stop selling the product.
>
> It is likely that these licenses are already not GPLv2 compatible.
> Particularly if there is patent licensing.



-- 
Rémi Denis-Courmont
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