● 07.31.07

●● DRM is Not a GNU GPLv3 Achilles Heel, But Might Interoperability Be?

Posted in FSF, GNU/Linux, GPL, Hardware, Microsoft, Novell, Tivoization at 10:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Discussions about Tivoization have left plenty of room for disinformation. Some still believe that GPLv3 forbids DRM. While DRM is a very nasty, dangerous, and anti-consumer use of encryption, it is not forbidden by the new licence. Ed Burnette wrote a lengthy item to dispel this myth.

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In our continuing series on the latest version of the world’s most popular (and least understood) free/open source license, today we look at a controversial subject: Digital Rights Management (DRM). My colleague David Berlind has another name for DRM: Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection (CRAP).

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Elsewhere on the Web, someone decided to share malicious ideas that could ‘poison’ the licence.

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Since MS seems to really dislike GPL v3, they could solve a lot of their problems with a simple move: Release all the code necessary to get interoperability under Linux working. Under GPL v2 only.

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This is similar to an idea which we already said would never work. The partnerships with Linux companies (other than Novell) were — among many things — used to pressure the FSF and discourage use of GPLv3.

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