Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760590AbXFRHXR (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:23:17 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1758206AbXFRHXG (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:23:06 -0400 Received: from www.osadl.org ([213.239.205.134]:54640 "EHLO mail.tglx.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757617AbXFRHXF (ORCPT ); Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:23:05 -0400 From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Hans-J=FCrgen_Koch?= To: Alexandre Oliva Subject: Re: mea culpa on the meaning of Tivoization Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:22:26 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.5 Cc: Alan Cox , Ingo Molnar , Daniel Hazelton , Linus Torvalds , Greg KH , debian developer , david@lang.hm, Tarkan Erimer , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Andrew Morton , Chris Friesen , Bernd Schmidt , Robin Getz , Rob Landley , Bron Gondwana , Al Viro References: <20070618005041.6c51a368@the-village.bc.nu> In-Reply-To: Organization: Linutronix MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200706180922.26630.hjk@linutronix.de> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1366 Lines: 30 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 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/