> With increasing amounts of SW development moving to low-cost countries, this sort of attitude may well eventually destroy the availability of the 'free' softw

> With increasing amounts of SW development moving to low-cost countries, this sort of attitude may well eventually destroy the availability of the 'free' software that these manufacturers rely on (besides hurting the GPL + homebrew firmware communities). Yeah that's why you need trade deals which include strong intellectual property provisions like ACTA, TPP, TTIP. Ohh wait we're all supposed to hate those because Hollywood. But yeah if you want copyright protection for GPL code you also get copyright for other things.