On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 12:15:31PM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote: > Blars Blarson <blarson@blars.org> wrote: > > In article <[🔎] E1CdHw3-0003QG-00@chiark.greenend.org.uk> > > mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk writes: > >>How does moving firmware from the disk to the hardware (therefore making > >>it harder to modify and more expensive) further the cause of free > >>software? > > > > It makes it covered by the hardware manufacturers warentee. If it is > > faulty, you can return it for repair or refund. > > Under UK law, I have the same rights with faulty software. Do other > jurisdictions actually treat software and hardware differently in this > respect? UK law is abnormal in that we blast through those 'ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY' clauses in software licenses with the Sale of Goods act. In most places those hold (because the 'licensed, not sold' thing lets them specify almost arbitrary terms). We're considered unusually socialist for holding people responsible for selling goods as advertised (rather than considering it 'reasonable' to sell a box containing a piece of paper that says it's not their fault if the software doesn't work, or indeed completely fails to be inside the expensive box when you open it). -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | `. `' | `- -><- |
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