Tivoization

Last updated

Tivoization ( /ˈtiːvoʊɪˌzeɪʃən/ ) is the practice of designing hardware that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license like the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), but uses hardware restrictions or digital rights management (DRM) to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that hardware. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) coined the term in reference to TiVo's use of GNU GPL licensed software on the TiVo brand digital video recorders (DVR), which actively block modified software by design. [1] [2] Stallman believes this practice denies users some of the freedom that the GNU GPL was designed to protect. [3] The FSF refers to tivoized hardware as "proprietary tyrants". [4]

Contents

The Free Software Foundation explicitly forbade tivoization in version 3 of the GNU General Public License. However, although version 3 has been adopted by many software projects, the authors of the Linux kernel have notably declined to move from version 2 to version 3.

Background

TiVo's software incorporates the Linux kernel and GNU software, both of which are licensed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2). GPLv2 requires distributors to make the corresponding source code available to each person who receives the software. One goal of this requirement is to allow users of GPL-covered software to modify the software to better suit their purposes. [5]

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation asserts that TiVo circumvented the GPL's goal by making their products run programs only if the program's digital signature matches those authorized by the manufacturer of the TiVo. [6] While TiVo has complied with the GPL v2 requirement to release the source code for others to modify, any modified software will not run on TiVo's hardware.

Bradley Kuhn of the Software Freedom Conservancy disputes Stallman's narrative. Kuhn asserts that TiVo did not strictly forbid software replacement, but TiVo's proprietary software was intentionally designed to not function if any open-source components were replaced, which consequently required the user to find fully open-source alternatives to the proprietary software. In Kuhn's view, TiVo did not tivoize, the GPLv2 was already sufficient to prevent tivoization, and the intent of the GPLv3 was to add an additional, unnecessary requirement that proprietary software continue to function. [7]

GNU GPLv3

In 2006, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) decided to combat TiVo's technical system of blocking users from running modified software. The FSF subsequently developed a third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) which was designed to include language which prohibited this activity. [8] According to Eben Moglen, "the license should prohibit technical means of evasion of its rules, with the same clarity that it prohibits legal evasion of its rules." [9]

The second draft of the GPLv3 attempted to clarify the rules regarding tivoization. [10] However, some Linux kernel developers were still concerned that this draft might still prohibit beneficial uses of digital signatures. [11] Stallman and the Free Software Foundation attempted to respond to some of these concerns by stating that the GPLv3 allows private digital signatures for security purposes while still preventing tivoization.[ citation needed ]

In the third and fourth discussion drafts of the GPLv3, released March 28, 2007 and May 31, 2007, respectively, the anti-tivoization clause was limited so as not to apply when the software is distributed to a business. [12] Thus, medical devices and voting machines would not be covered. The final, official GPLv3 was published on June 29, 2007, with no major changes in respect to tivoization relative to the fourth draft.

Linus Torvalds said he was "pretty pleased" with the new draft's stance on DRM. [13] However, he still does not support relicensing the Linux kernel under GPLv3, stating that: [14]

Stallman calls it "tivoization", but that's a word he has made up, and a term I find offensive, so I don't choose to use it. It's offensive because Tivo never did anything wrong, and the FSF even acknowledged that. The fact [is] that they do their hardware and have some DRM issues with the content producers and thus want to protect the integrity of that hardware. The kernel license covers the *kernel*. It does not cover boot loaders and hardware, and as far as I'm concerned, people who make their own hardware can design them any which way they want. Whether that means "booting only a specific kernel" or "sharks with lasers", I don't care.

The GPLv3's new license provisions were acknowledged by TiVo in its April 2007 SEC filing: "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." [15]

Outcome

The Linux kernel, which is included in the operating system of TiVo-branded hardware, is still distributed under the terms of the GPLv2. The kernel has not been changed to use GPLv3 [16] because the kernel maintainers have generally perceived the GPLv3 to be overly restrictive, [17] [18] [19] although some kernel developers, such as Alan Cox, [20] have expressed divergent opinions. In any case, offering the Linux kernel under a different license would likely be infeasible because of its very large number of copyright holders. Unlike most GPL software, the kernel is licensed only under GPLv2 without the wording "or, at your option, any later version", therefore the explicit agreement of all copyright holders would be required to license the kernel as a whole under a new version. [21]

Some other projects widely used in tivoized embedded systems, such as BusyBox, have also declined to move to GPLv3. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free software</span> Software licensed to preserve user freedoms

Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, not price; all users are legally free to do what they want with their copies of a free software regardless of how much is paid to obtain the program. Computer programs are deemed "free" if they give end-users ultimate control over the software and, subsequently, over their devices.

The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets these requirements, The Four Essential Freedoms of Free Software, is termed free software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU</span> Free software collection

GNU is an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operating systems popularly known as Linux. Most of GNU is licensed under the GNU Project's own General Public License (GPL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Project</span> Free software project

The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaboratively developing and publishing software that gives everyone the rights to freely run the software, copy and distribute it, study it, and modify it. GNU software grants these rights in its license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU/Linux naming controversy</span> Issues of what to call a system with the GNU toolchain and the Linux kernel

Within the free software and the open-source software communities there is controversy over whether to refer to computer operating systems that use a combination of GNU software and the Linux kernel as "GNU/Linux" or "Linux" systems.

The Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is a free and open-source software license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary. In 2005 the Open Source Initiative approved the license. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) considers it a free software license, but one which is incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Software Freedom Law Center</span>

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by Open Source Development Labs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradley M. Kuhn</span> American free software activist

Bradley M. Kuhn is a free software activist from the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free and open-source software</span> Software whose source code is available and which is permissively licensed

Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.

Alternative terms for free software, such as open source, FOSS, and FLOSS, have been a controversial issue among free and open-source software users from the late 1990s onwards. These terms share almost identical licence criteria and development practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Stallman</span> American free software activist and GNU Project founder (born 1953)

Richard Matthew Stallman, also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to use, study, distribute, and modify that software. Software that ensures these freedoms is termed free software. Stallman launched the GNU Project, founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 1985, developed the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, and wrote all versions of the GNU General Public License.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linux</span> Family of Unix-like operating systems

Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which includes the kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name "GNU/Linux" to emphasize the use and importance of GNU software in many distributions, causing some controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of free and open-source software</span> Aspect of history

In the 1950s and 1960s, computer operating software and compilers were delivered as a part of hardware purchases without separate fees. At the time, source code, the human-readable form of software, was generally distributed with the software providing the ability to fix bugs or add new functions. Universities were early adopters of computing technology. Many of the modifications developed by universities were openly shared, in keeping with the academic principles of sharing knowledge, and organizations sprung up to facilitate sharing. As large-scale operating systems matured, fewer organizations allowed modifications to the operating software, and eventually such operating systems were closed to modification. However, utilities and other added-function applications are still shared and new organizations have been formed to promote the sharing of software.

License compatibility is a legal framework that allows for pieces of software with different software licenses to be distributed together. The need for such a framework arises because the different licenses can contain contradictory requirements, rendering it impossible to legally combine source code from separately-licensed software in order to create and publish a new program. Proprietary licenses are generally program-specific and incompatible; authors must negotiate to combine code. Copyleft licenses are commonly deliberately incompatible with proprietary licenses, in order to prevent copyleft software from being re-licensed under a proprietary license, turning it into proprietary software. Many copyleft licenses explicitly allow relicensing under some other copyleft licenses. Permissive licenses are compatible with everything, including proprietary licenses; there is thus no guarantee that all derived works will remain under a permissive license.

Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds: to create a new free operating system kernel. The resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991, it has grown from a small number of C files under a license prohibiting commercial distribution to the 4.15 version in 2018 with more than 23.3 million lines of source code, not counting comments, under the GNU General Public License v2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free-software license</span> License allowing software modification and redistribution

A free-software license is a notice that grants the recipient of a piece of software extensive rights to modify and redistribute that software. These actions are usually prohibited by copyright law, but the rights-holder of a piece of software can remove these restrictions by accompanying the software with a software license which grants the recipient these rights. Software using such a license is free software as conferred by the copyright holder. Free-software licenses are applied to software in source code and also binary object-code form, as the copyright law recognizes both forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU General Public License</span> Series of free software licenses

The GNU General Public License is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general use and was originally written by the founder of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Richard Stallman, for the GNU Project. The license grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the Free Software Definition. These GPL series are all copyleft licenses, which means that any derivative work must be distributed under the same or equivalent license terms. It is more restrictive than the Lesser General Public License and even further distinct from the more widely used permissive software licenses BSD, MIT, and Apache.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNU Free Documentation License</span> Copyleft license primarily for free software documentation

The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify a work and requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies may also be sold commercially, but, if produced in larger quantities, the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft terms, such as with its own GNU General Public License. The FSF was incorporated in Boston, Massachusetts, US, where it is also based.

Software relicensing is applied in open-source software development when software licenses of software modules are incompatible and are required to be compatible for a greater combined work. Licenses applied to software as copyrightable works, in source code as binary form, can contain contradictory clauses. These requirements can make it impossible to combine source code or content of several software works to create a new combined one.

References

  1. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses". Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2015. GNU.org Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses
  2. ↑ "A Quick Guide to GPLv3". Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2015. A Quick Guide to GPLv3
  3. ↑ "[Info-gplv3] GPLv3 Update #2". fsf.org. Archived from the original on October 26, 2006. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Proprietary Tyrants". Free Software Foundation. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  5. ↑ "The Free Software Definition". Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved January 28, 2023. ...The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs...
  6. ↑ "Using large disks with TiVo". gratisoft.us. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kuhn, Bradley (July 23, 2021). ""Tivoization" and Your Right to Install Under Copyleft". Conservancy Blog. Retrieved April 6, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Richard Stallman explains the new GPL provisions to block "tivoisation"". Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Eben Moglen, speaking about GPLv3 in Barcelona". Archived from the original on January 12, 2023. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Opinion on Digital Restrictions Management". fsf.org. Archived from the original on August 19, 2006. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  11. ↑ Bottomley, James E.J.; Chehab, Mauro Carvalho; Gleixner, Thomas; Hellwig, Christoph; Jones, Dave; Kroah-Hartman, Greg; Luck, Tony; Morton, Andrew; Myklebust, Trond; Woodhouse, David (September 22, 2006). "GPLv3 Position Statement". google.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  12. ↑ brett (June 26, 2007). "GPLv3 FAQ, with explanation of Section 6's limits |". Archived from the original on June 6, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Torvalds 'pretty pleased' about new GPL 3 draft". CNet news.com. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012.
  14. ↑ Torvalds, Linus (June 13, 2007). "Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3". Linux Kernel Mailing List. Archived from the original on June 17, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  15. ↑ "InformationWeek: TiVo Warns Investors New Open Source License Could Hurt Business". June 1, 2007. Archived from the original on July 27, 2022.
  16. ↑ Torvalds, Linus. "COPYING". kernel.org. blob ca442d313d86dc67e0a2e5d584b465bd382cbf5c. Archived from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2013. Also note that the only valid version of the GPL as far as the kernel is concerned is _this_ particular version of the license (ie v2, not v2.2 or v3.x or whatever), unless explicitly otherwise stated.
  17. ↑ Bottomley, James E.J.; Chehab, Mauro Carvalho; Gleixner, Thomas; Hellwig, Christoph; Jones, Dave; Kroah-Hartman, Greg; Luck, Tony; Morton, Andrew; Myklebust, Trond; Woodhouse, David (September 15, 2006). "Kernel developers' position on GPLv3 – The Dangers and Problems with GPLv3". LWN.net. Archived from the original on September 25, 2006. Retrieved March 11, 2015. The current version (Discussion Draft 2) of GPLv3 on first reading fails the necessity test of section 1 on the grounds that there's no substantial and identified problem with GPLv2 that it is trying to solve. However, a deeper reading reveals several other problems with the current FSF draft: 5.1 DRM Clauses [...] 5.2 Additional Restrictions Clause [...] 5.3 Patents Provisions [...]since the FSF is proposing to shift all of its projects to GPLv3 and apply pressure to every other GPL licensed project to move, we foresee the release of GPLv3 portends the Balkanisation of the entire Open Source Universe upon which we rely.
  18. ↑ Linus Torvalds says GPL v3 violates everything that GPLv2 stood for. Debconf 2014. Portland. September 4, 2014. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  19. ↑ "fa.linux.kernel: Linus Torvalds: Flame Linus to a crisp!". google.com. April 24, 2003. Archived from the original on December 27, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  20. ↑ "UK Linux guru backs GPL 3". ZDNet. January 31, 2006. Archived from the original on April 28, 2009. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  21. ↑ Mark P. Lindhout (October 16, 2006). "(About GPLv3) Can the Linux Kernel Relicense? — Ciarán's free software notes". fsfe.org. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Busy busy busybox". LWN. Archived from the original on November 5, 2006. Retrieved January 28, 2023.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.