[Discuss] Fwd: Hey FCC, Don't Lock Down Our Wi-Fi Routers | WIRED

[Rich Pieri]

On 11/7/2015 5:08 PM, Bill Bogstad wrote:
> software or FSF? lawsuits would make more sense to me.   As it is, it
> seems to me that there must be some other reason that they don't just
> ship something like OpenWrt.   I have my own theories involving the

Another reason is RMS. Despite TiVo being in full compliance with the 
GPLv2, RMS took it upon himself to launch his fuck TiVo crusade. RMS and 
the GPLv3 have demonstrated that using GPL software in commercial 
products is dangerous to vendors. OpenWrt includes Samba and mini-httpd, 
both of which are GPLv3. This makes OpenWrt a hot potato in the sense of 
a live hand grenade: nobody wants to be holding it when RMS goes "boom!".

It isn't any one reason. When you take all of the problems that go with 
trying to use GPL software in commercial products -- warranties, 
support, licenses, RMS' sanity, and so forth -- it's easy to come to the 
conclusion that choosing free as in FSF software is the wrong choice.

-- 
Rich P.