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Date:      Fri, 1 Dec 2000 10:37:13 +0100
From:      Brad Knowles <blk@skynet.be>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, brett@lariat.org (Brett Glass)
Cc:        tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Here is what IBM thinks about using FreeBSD on their newer
Message-ID:  <v04220801b64d2084ba1c@[10.0.1.2]>
In-Reply-To: <200012010311.UAA18343@usr09.primenet.com>
References:  <200012010311.UAA18343@usr09.primenet.com>

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At 3:11 AM +0000 2000/12/1, Terry Lambert wrote:

>  IBM does not sell InterJets, any more than your local cable
>  company sells set-top boxes: IBM sells services.  Since an
>  end user does not _buy_ an InterJet, they are not entitled to
>  the source code, even if it was all contaminated: they are
>  not being sold the software.

	Right.  This is one of the key reasons why I never considered 
getting an InterJet.  If someone *sold* a BSD-based device that is 
otherwise identical to this, I would have bought one in a nanosecond, 
but I don't want to buy a Linux-based Qube, nor do I want to shackle 
myself forever to a service provider.


	Everyone is getting into the "give away a piece of hardware that 
does something that used to be free and sell the services" business 
model, but not everyone is buying it.

	I'm not going to pay TiVo $$$ per month to take an electronic TV 
schedule (the contents of which are printed for "free" in newspapers 
and magazines around the world) and then have a computer digitally 
record the stuff I want to watch.

	If someone wants to *sell* me the box that does this via other 
services that are already available (via broadcast during the 
vertical blanking interval on PBS stations, etc...), I'll be more 
than happy to spend lots of extra money to get that, but I simply 
refuse to shackle myself to buying a set of services for the rest of 
my life.

--
   These are my opinions -- not to be taken as official Skynet policy
======================================================================
Brad Knowles, <blk@skynet.be>                || Belgacom Skynet SA/NV
Systems Architect, Mail/News/FTP/Proxy Admin || Rue Colonel Bourg, 124
Phone/Fax: +32-2-706.13.11/12.49             || B-1140 Brussels
http://www.skynet.be                         || Belgium

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.


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