Nickname: Max

Review: New Age, The bill cost more to produce than the service offered. How do you cope with that? There is more Linux blend than you can name! Yes, why a 100 bugs portable DVD player can have a rear protection plate that you can unscrew to show USB plugs to connect mouse/keyboard/flashdisk and a bootable Chinux or Chindows DVD full of applications. Setting GNU is a good idea but creating a code editor that integrate through a Web search engine every function subroutine published on the net it another paradigm. Anybody can contribute by creating functions to the code magma and expect others to trade him functions launched as bootle on the sea. Who is the author of a sotware composed of 10,000 functions from 1,000 unknow contributors, collected from the Net? Enjoy

Date reviewed: Jun 19, 2006 12:43 PM

Nickname: Boko

Review: I think the Tivo example is a bad one. They took the code, added value to it by making a usable end-product out of it, they'll let you take the code and modify it, but once you modify the code, Tivo doesn't work anymore. Don't see anything wrong with that -- the Tivo guys are protecting the value-added end product! I mean, what would you like Tivo to do? Take off the protection and allow people ability to modify their Tivo operating systems so they double as laptops or DVD players or whatever? C'mon, be real man.

Date reviewed: Apr 20, 2006 6:56 PM

Nickname: Richard Stallman

Review: mrrm: You said that you "installed a Linux." Fedora is a version of the GNU/Linux operating system. If you call it "Linux," you're giving the system's principal developer (the GNU Project) none of the credit--so please call it GNU/Linux. (See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.) Guaranteed and supported versions of GNU/Linux are available for separate installation too, at a price. Our aim isn't to give people a free lunch, it is to defend our freedom (which includes yours, if you choose to be one of us). Companies like the one that manufactured your modem often cooperate with Microsoft more than with us. Microsoft offers them a deal, hoping to pressure people to do just what you have done: use Microsoft Windows. If you take the short view, you can be herded by someone else that takes a longer view and doesn't respect your freedom. But you could surely find someone in a GNU/Linux user group to help you over that problem, by installing the driver for you.

Date reviewed: Apr 7, 2006 5:33 PM

Nickname: RoanKattouw

Review: Peter should read Eben Moglen's say on this at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html

Date reviewed: Mar 30, 2006 2:05 PM

Nickname: Michael

Review: Peter The article says that TiVo is complying with the letter or the license, but not the spirit of the license. This is why the next version of the license will prevent such an abuse.

Date reviewed: Mar 30, 2006 10:34 AM

Nickname: fsfmember1005

Review: Hey Rob! Click on the link in the upper right hand corner that says "Printer Friendly Version." Peter. Join the FSF if you want to help support the fight against GPL violations. https://www.fsf.org/associate/

Date reviewed: Mar 30, 2006 9:46 AM

Nickname: FutureUser

Review: If somebody takes away your rights in the middle of the woods, and it doesn't make a sound, did you still lose your rights? Of course you did. A major problem here is that most people don't really know their rights, therefore, they don't know when somebody is trying to steal them.

Date reviewed: Mar 29, 2006 8:05 PM

Nickname: Peter

Review: Let me start by saying that the concept of GNU is great and I, for one, would like it to have more power. If, as you say, big organizations are ignoring it (e.g. TiVo), then it is without value. This is fundamental to the concept of "free things." Because the license is free, nobody can pay to enforce it. Why hasn't GNU sued TiVo? Probably because it can't afford to do so! Unless this problem can be solved then it is a waste of time writing v3 of the license! Far better to spend your time enforcing (or finding a way to enforce) the license that exists!

Date reviewed: Mar 29, 2006 9:49 AM

Nickname: Larry

Review: I believe that Brad is missing something. Certainly he is correct in saying that we are free to not purchase from vendors whose policies or protections we do not support. The problem is how these things are slipped in. Back in the days of vinyl LPs, you could make a copy on tape. If you played it in your car, that was considered "fair use." If you sold it or gave it away, that was clearly illegal. Today, we have vendors taking away fair use without sufficient disclosure to prevent any possible illegal use. I love all things Apple, but when you download iTunes, there is no notice that says, "By the way, if you buy music from us, you are prevented from converting it to MP3 and playing it in your (non-Apple) MP3 play, or from burning it onto a CD-ROM in MP3 form to play in your own car." Sure, if you read enough fine print, you could figure this out, but the bottom line is that you are prevented from legal use of music you pay for.

Date reviewed: Mar 29, 2006 8:36 AM

Nickname: titch

Review: It is with great concern that I read all this. Keep up the great work and bless all your helpers. Keep us all free from the beast.

Date reviewed: Mar 29, 2006 1:04 AM