Re: mea culpa on the meaning of Tivoization

[Hans-Jürgen Koch]

Am Montag 18 Juni 2007 02:56 schrieb Alexandre Oliva:

> 
> Anyhow, AFAIK software in ROM is not non-Free Software.  That it's
> impossible to modify/replace/whathaveyou it is not the result of a
> restriction that someone is imposing on you.
> 
> It's the difference between "you can't fly because you don't have
> wings" and "you won't fly because I've tied your wings".  With tied
> wings, you're evidently not free to fly any more.  But if the problem
> is that you don't have wings, if you're free and sufficiently
> creative, you may be able to invent baloons, airplanes, rockets et al
> and overcome the barriers that nature poses for you.
> 

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"?

Your tied-up-wings comparison is simply not valid. Or, more precisely,
you will usually not be able to tell whether you don't have wings or
if they're tied. Hardware design decisions of a manufacturer should
never be the subject of a software license.

Hans
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