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It is legal because they don't license their software with a license ensuring freedoms of the user. The user is not free to use their software. That's the po
by informatimago 10y ago
It is legal because they don't license their software with a license ensuring freedoms of the user. The user is not free to use their software.
That's the point of the GPL. If the users took care of only buying products including only GPL'ed software, then they would have the freedoms:
1- to use the software,
2- to copy it for their friends,
3- to get the source to audit it and modify it (so they would be free to remove any backdoor that wouldn't exist in the first place for this very reason),
4- to compile the source to binaries and use them to replace the provided binaries (so their may increase their level of trust of the software they run on their hardware).
Do not buy products that come with freedom-restricted software!
- zaroth 10y agoAfter all that the GPL still doesn't help these users unless they are also able to spin up and maintain the various servers & services the software also relies on.
- zik 10y agoIt's legal for them to disable the software but not for them to prevent the user from using the hardware. It depends on how literal the "bricking" really is but if they made it impossible to load up (say) cyanogenmod then they could be up for a big destruction of property lawsuit.