Even though it is not even here yet, GPL 3 is already a trouble maker

Jun 4, 2007 14:03 GMT  ·  By

TiVo is a popular brand of digital video recorders (DVR) in the United States. It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage possibly for a later viewing.

TiVo has recently released a comment over the way the new General Public License version may affect its business. TiVo is well known for the hacking attempts to which users resort in order to improve services or to provide it in the countries where it is not currently sold. TiVo's software is based on Linux and they operate a subscription service. Therefore, TiVo's software takes in some features which should protect TiVo from users' attempt to alter the software.

However, the GPL 3 threatens to forbid TiVo from implementing measures meant to prevent user modification. According to TiVo officials, this could be harmful to their business:

"If the currently proposed version of GPLv3 is widely adopted, we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business".

This comes after the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has released on Thursday the final draft of the GPL 3 version. On this occasion, Richard Stallman, president of the FSF explained the anti-modification new measures, also indicating that the new ban does not apply to the products designed for business use.

"The ban on tivoization applies to any product whose use by consumers, even occasionally, is to be expected,"said Stallman, also adding: "GPLv3 ensures you are free to remove the handcuffs. It doesn't forbid DRM, or any kind of feature. It places no limits on the substantive functionality you can add to a program, or remove from it. Rather, it makes sure that you are just as free to remove nasty features as the distributor of your copy was to add them ...".