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Wait, the John Deere lawsuits were about hardware? I thought they were arguing that they only licensed (and didn't sell) the firmware controlling their newer tr
by giaour 11y ago
Wait, the John Deere lawsuits were about hardware? I thought they were arguing that they only licensed (and didn't sell) the firmware controlling their newer tractors. I.e., the same bullshit companies have been pulling for decades. IIRC, the original inspiration for the Free Software Foundation was a buggy, restrictively licensed printer driver.
- vinbreau 11y agoSorry, didn't mean to muddy the conversation. It's not the hardware they say is licensed, it's the necessary software used to run the machine. Either way, you don't own the entire product, only part of it, and the most essential part is what is licensed. Without the software the hardware is useless so it may as well be the hardware.
- giaour 11y agoIn theory, someone could write GPL tractor firmware, and I don't think anyone from John Deere could legally prevent you from replacing their locked-down firmware with GnuTractor or whatever. (Then again, IANAL, so maybe they could?) Frankly, this seems like an area where the FSF could do a lot of good and garner a lot of goodwill.
- vinbreau 11y agoIf Apple can void your warranty for jailbreaking I'm sure John Deere could do the same.