[Nottingham] "tivoization", iPhone, and GPLv3 lockout?

[Martin]

An opportune moment for an old slumbering discussion:

Michael Erskine wrote:
> 2008/8/7 Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk>:
>> In short, the combination of Apple's restrictive "Digital Restrictions
>> Management" ("DRM") and the purity of the (L)GPLv3 mean that there can
>> be no Open Source software protected by the (L)GPLv3 used on such as the
>> Apple iPhone or Microsoft xbox.
>> Is this a good idea?
> 
> Idea? There is no overall engineered plan between the Free Software
> movement and the proprietary corporations that can be constituted as
> an "idea": each has their own agenda, namely "retaining freedom" and
> "making profit" respectively.

And there is the conundrum.

The open source community is at present completely reliant on
*proprietary hardware* ...

So far, we've been able to hijack almost any existing proprietary
software-hardware system and just 'reboot' into an Open Source software
system running on that same hardware. Also, all for no extra cost other
than merely our time to set it up.

All it takes is for some proprietary firmware dongling to be imposed on
the hardware and we then have nothing to run our beautiful software on...

"Palladium" (c, tm) and "Trusted Computing" (c, tm) anyone?


>> Is Open Source now really powerful enough to take on the proprietary
>> restrictions head-on?
> 
> Short answer: Mu: un-ask the question
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_%28negative%29)
> 
> It doesn't matter: each are not interested in tackling the other
> "head-on". ...

True enough. However, there must be interworking, or we are left adrift
and isolated on our desert island utopia...


>> Or will it leverage an advantage for Open Source /hardware/?
> 
> Perhaps. Don't hold your breath though!

Exactly so.

Or might we yet be saved by the Eee-esq minimalist proprietary hardware
that is too minimalist for the proprietary software?


Cheers,
Martin


-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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