Re: mea culpa on the meaning of Tivoization

[Hans-JÃrgen Koch]

Am Montag 18 Juni 2007 20:55 schrieb Alexandre Oliva:
> On Jun 18, 2007, Hans-JÃrgen Koch <hjk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > So, if a manufacturer used a ROM instead of a flash memory with the
> > intention to make software modifications impossible, then it is bad,
> > and when he did it for economical reasons, then it is a "natural barrier"?
> 
> This sounds about right to me.
> 
> Intent is very significant, but then, what vendor would justify the
> choice of ROM as "intent to prevent modifications", if this amounted
> to copyright infringement?

Indeed. That nicely shows how useless any licensing discussion is
when it comes to hardware design issues, including "Tivoization". 

> 
> Vendor would be entitled to the benefit of the doubt as to the
> motivations in this case, so it would likely be unenforceable anyway.
>

Right. If GPL v3 comes out, there'll probably be a new task for
hardware development engineers: How to find excuses for hardware that
prevents software modifications and how to conceal the true intent.

Hans
 
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