I think that after the thread N900 Questions and the different opinions/suggestions this thread should be re-activated.
I created a page in MeeGo as draft. Of course it depends of MeeGo, but the idea is create/recollect some interesting ideas about this possibility. http://wiki.meego.com/Social_contract Regards, Adrian. > ----- Original message ----- > From: "Carsten Munk" <carsten at maemo.org> > To: meego-dev at meego.com > Subject: [MeeGo-dev] Proposal: A vendor social contract > Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:58:03 +0100 > > > One of the things we worked with in the Mer project > (http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer), which I personally find valuable and that > we should consider in the Meego project, is a social contract for > vendors basing on the Meego platform to ideally follow in order to > encourage more open devices. > > When talking about open, I mean the same kind of hackable devices that > we've seen Maemo Internet Tablets and Devices be - that we can flash > our own kernel and rootfs image, not about open hardware > (specifications, etc). > > This is not a license-specific or a semi-religious issue, but something > we've used in order to estimate if there's a benefit in helping > vendors to get ports - ie, is the effort on community side wasted if > we are unable to deal/continue the port for the device once the vendor > gives up trying to provide OS'es for the device. > > The original can be seen at > http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer/Documentation/Vendor_Social_Contract and > I've modified it a bit to fit Meego better: > > == No tivoization == > > Tivoization is the creation of a system that incorporates software > under the terms of a copyleft software license, but uses hardware to > prevent users from running modified versions of the software on that > hardware. > > A user of your device, running Meego, should always be able to replace > the OS image with one of their own making [Editor: This might be a > problem with operator-locked devices tied to a contract, so let's > focus on the instance where the user fully owns his device]. > > This can be fulfilled by: > > * Not using hardware to prevent users from running modified > versions of the OS. > * Not requiring signed firmwares. > * Publishing bootloader specifications (firmware format and > methods of firmware replacement). > > == Open source kernel modules == > > Please publish the source for any modules required to access hardware > on the device. > > * Allows users to use modern kernels in their devices. > * Permit continued development of Meego for the device. > * Allows ongoing community support. > > Open source software allows the development team to keep your drivers > up to date whenever Meego framework changes require driver > modifications. > > == Redistribution is allowed == > > We ask that you allow the Meego community to distribute binary copies > of any closed-source firmware or hardware-support software that is > needed to support your device. > > If absolutely required, the Meego community can organize a procedure > to distribute firmware or hardware-support software only to users of > your device, behind EULA and identified with their serial number or > MAC address, etc. > > If you choose to differentiate your device through closed-source > bundled application software too (e.g., Flash), we ask that you allow > the same distribution rights for this software. > > A user of your device can then, at any point in the future, build a > fresh Meego OS image without losing any functionality they had with > the original firmware. > > == Community Reciprocation == > > The Meego community is committed to 100% OSS and wants to support > organisations moving towards open source. Although we recognise and > respect that they may not, at this time, list that as one of their own > objectives. > > The community will: > > * Support the spirit of the Vendor Social Contract. > * Respect the copyright/patent/license limitations that vendors > may be faced with when distributing software. > * Support vendors in finding open solutions if desired. > > I'd like to hear comments on this idea as policy/recommendation for > Meego - all angles are valid. > > Regards, > Carsten Munk > Mer lead developer, maemo.org distmaster > _______________________________________________ > MeeGo-dev mailing list > MeeGo-dev at meego.com > http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev _______________________________________________ MeeGo-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev
