[mythtv-users] Legality of selling MythTV and its Components?
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org
Wed May 3 20:28:20 UTC 2006
On May 3, 2006, at 1:40 PM, Jesse Guardiani wrote:
> I wish a lawyer would speak up on these issues. Currently it looks
> like
>
> I hope Brian Woods and a few others who have vehemently opposed the
> commercialization
> of mythtv won't boycott my products merely because the description
> mentions that it can be
> used with mythtv. I just want to provide inexpensive, pre-assembled
> solutions to the community.
> I don't think there is anything illegal about that.
I do not oppose the commercialization of MythTV, vehemently or
otherwise.
What I do oppose is doing something that our US data supplier has
publicly stated they have a problem with. I don't care about the
legal issues, somebody who is doing me a valuable service has said
they do not want you doing what's been proposed, it's a moral issue
to me, not a legal one.
If you can make a deal with Tribune and have their blessing to use
their service, or make a similar deal with somebody else to provide a
similar service, I will support you as much as I can. I would point
potential customers your way and encourage people to migrate from
MCE, EYE or others.
However, if you appear to be a threat to the continued operation of a
system that I have worked hard to make work for me, then I will
oppose your actions vehemently.
In general I would like to see Open Source Software used in
mainstream products. Unfortunately, in almost every case that I am
aware of (TiVo, Linksys, GP2X, et al) the companies involved have
pushed the absolute limit (and sometimes beyond) of the GPL in an
effort to gain commercial advantage, violating the spirit if not the
letter of what Open Source is all about.
There are exceptions, Codeweavers, IBM's JFS and VNC come to mind.
But the pattern I see is that as soon as hardware gets into the mix
the trouble starts.
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