On 06/19/2012 03:45 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
I would claim that the moral right to run whatever software we wish
on
hardware we own is a negative right; it doesn't put any obligation on
another party to help you do it. If you can hack up Fedora to run on a
Nokia Windows phone, more power to you, but Nokia and Microsoft aren't
obligated to help you do it, and aren't legally prohibited from doing
things that make it difficult for you to exercise your moral right.
I think I'd disagree with you there. I don't think it's any different
from someone using extensive technical measures to prevent anyone
other than the authorized dealers of a particular car from servicing
it. Such a move would be treated as anti-competitive in many countries,
and IMO software should be treated in the same way.
Possibly in this example someone might consider Nokia and Microsoft
to
be infringing their moral right, but (in the US at least) they'd have no
recourse.
Indeed.
Andrew.