OT: Nokia expects open source developers to accept things like DRM, commercial IP rights, and SIM locks.

[Gabriel Ambuehl]

On Saturday 14 June 2008 03:24:25 Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen wrote:
>   A lot of people look for the worst in others, and i try to generally play
> the other side. Look in the snip i did above, and try to read what else the
> guy is saying: He doesn't like DRM in principle, but realise that the
> carriers like it enough that if Nokia's handsets did not support it, they
> wouldn't do any business (they make a LOT of money through subsidised
> handsets). This is something people might have understood here as well, if
> they had attended Knut's talk at FOSDEM this year, where he tackled the
> subject as well. It was a rather enlightening talk for a large number of
> the attendees as i remember it.

One of the statements is:
"We want to educate open-source developers. There are certain business rules 
[developers] need to obey, such as DRM, IPR [intellectual property rights], 
SIM locks and subsidised business models.”"

Now I dislike DRM as much as the next guy, but if it's only for content sold 
by the network operator, I could not care less. Who wants to buy 3EUR 
ringtones, anyway? IPR obviously need to be respected, otherwise the GPL 
itself becomes void, too. 

As for SIM locks and subsidised business models, it seems like a valid trade 
off to me. Get a phone much cheaper than it would cost on its own but only 
use it on our network. As long as there are unlocked version of the same 
phones available, I guess I just don't see the issue. Denying the possibility 
of such arrangements actually impairs the freedom of the end-user as well. 
Namely the freedom to buy a somewhat restricted product at a much lower 
price. 

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