Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 14, 2014 20:38 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104)
In reply to: Firefox gets closed-source DRM by riccieri
Parent article: Firefox gets closed-source DRM

The Open Source Definition includes following requirement:

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

The license may allow that, but the technical means would hobble that freedom. And now let's see the rationale:

Rationale: The mere ability to read source isn't enough to support independent peer review and rapid evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need to be able to experiment with and redistribute modifications.

That's not going to happen.

Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 14, 2014 22:28 UTC (Wed) by KaiRo (subscriber, #1987) [Link] (1 responses)

You are right in that this is walking a line. Note that any code implementing an ABI to different software, accessing pre-defined hardware or even implementing an agreed-to standard to the point is basically walking more or less the same line, as any modification might stop that other part from working, as will modifications to the sandbox that the DRM does not recognize.

Firefox gets closed-source DRM

Posted May 14, 2014 23:11 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

Linux kernel implements ABI to different software, accesses pre-defined hardware and even implements agreed-to standards to the point. Yet it's routinely distributed and used in modified form without losing its utility.