[mythtv] Re: Off-topic ranting (was: mythtv presentation at the CeBIT)

[Axel Thimm]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 03:26:48PM -0600, gettler at acm.org wrote:
> Hauppauge violated the GPL with their original MVP release, by putting their
> audio/video player inside busybox and not releasing it.  They split it out
> in later releases, but I don't believe they ever rectified the original
> mistake (ie, the MVP is still listed on the Busybox Hall-of-Shame).

That's a mistake of Hall-of-Shame, I got Hauppauge's version of
busybox with my MVP a year ago, so this seems to have been fixed long
since.

> Hauppauge never released any specs related to the MVP, nor did they ever
> release any code (aside from vanilla Busybox and the MontaVista Linux 2.1
> kernel).  We all assumed this was due to NDAs with IBM, but I never heard
> a straight answer on that.
> 
> A few people (myself included) reversed engineered the Hauppauge code and
> figured out how to do interesting things on the MVP itself.  It didn't take
> too long before we could do more things on the MVP than the Hauppauge code
> could do.  At that point, the fact that Hauppauge wasn't releasing anything
> became a moot point.
> 
> Recently, someone with a stb02500 development kit gave the IBM kernel module
> source to an MVP user who asked for them.  I wouldn't exactly call that a
> source release.  Basically, IBM had their standard low-level copyrights all
> over them (like I've seen on PIBS, EPOS, etc.), which basically says you
> can do whatever you want with the source.

That's a better license than Hauppauge itself has. In fact the IBM
modules have been the stumbling block to go 2.6.x with the MVP.

Where can I get this relicensed source?

> So in short, everything done with the MVP up until now has been done blind.
> But that may change, since the driver source is now out in the open.
> 
> However, I'd blame IBM for that situation.  I have seen their commercials
> (before I became a MythTV user :-) talking about how open source was so
> wonderful, but in this case they were being very closed.

Ever tried contacting IBM notebook division? ;)

> Of course, maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe Hauppauge is to blame for some or all
> of this, but I don't believe that at the moment.

Also for the MVP: Let me know what is needed. I can even try to
arrange for development boards (such with a serial connector), if
there is need for some. There will also be some interesting news at
the CeBIT concerning MVP making it even more desirable to get the
system open.

But this is indeed getting to far off mythtv-dev. Is there some MVP
for Linux users mailing list? If not should we setup one?
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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