Radio Free Software

from the code-around-anything dept

An interesting look at the GNU Radio project that aims to create free software to give any device just about any functionality... all under the GPL. There are a number of things about this that are especially interesting. First, the idea of a "universal computer" that can be a TV one minute, a GPS receiver the next, and a garage door opener after that is just cool. Turning the hardware issues into software issues certainly sounds nice (though, it's also quite a ways off). More important, though, is the effort that is being put into this to show how bad some upcoming laws restricting fair use freedoms will be. Basically, since software under GPL is free to be tampered with, a software TV tuner would come into conflict with any law forbidding tampering with the broadcast flag Hollywood wants so badly.

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