[mythtv-users] Tivo suing everyone in sight over DVR patents

[Brian Wood]

On Thursday 27 August 2009 09:39:21 Ronald Frazier wrote:
> > Tivo business model: Take other people's work, hire lawyers, find
> > loophole, profit.
>
> Care to elaborate on this? Because I have no idea what you are
> referring to. And if you are going to talk about using GPL'd linux,
> let me preemptively cut you off (Linus has said he see's nothing wrong
> with what TiVo has done).

Many people seem to think that the GPL precludes making money from GPLed 
software. It does nothing of the sort.

Some people seem to think that Tivo violated the "spirit" of the GPL, if not 
the letter, but most of those people don't seem to understand the GPL. Linus 
certainly understands it, and the fact that Tivo did not violate it.

Tivo perhaps engendered more versions of the GPL, intended to stop what Tivo 
did, but what they did was not a violation, IMHO it showed what can be done 
within the terms of the GPL, in a good way.

The GPL may have its flaws, but there are many other options for licensing 
software, and of course anyone is free to write their own license. 

The fact is that many people enjoy their Tivos, so GPLed Linux is making 
people happy. It does not seem to have made any money for Tivo though, and 
corporate Darwinism is pushing them to try and find other sources of revenue, 
like suing anything that moves and has deep pockets.

The real problem is software patents, but that's another story. The DVR 
patents should never have been granted, there was plenty of prior art going 
back to the 70s and 80s.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org