Re: mea culpa on the meaning of Tivoization (was: Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3)

[Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

> > In practical terms it does since a recall/replacement in the event of
> > rule changes is a bit impractical
> 
> Indeed.  But that's not a legal requirement, it's an economic reason.

Cynical Economists would argue 'legal requirements' are just changes to
the cost of the various economic options. Sometimes when I look at
Microsoft's approach to various cases it seems they think that way too.

>   denying the user of the computer the freedom to run modified
>   versions of the Free Software in it, by not sharing information as
>   to how it could be accomplished.

That's a nice definition but one I can see being sort of abusable
depending how you read it. We head ever more into the disposable computer
era where as a vendor putting the code on ROM is cheap and upgrades don't
matter (throw it away get a new one).

I can tell you how to upgrade it ("you can't") yet I as the manufacturer
can issue new units with modified code so I still control it even though
it is meant to be "free"
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