Mer/Documentation/Vendor Social Contract
Contents |
Social contract for hardware vendors
No tivoization
<quote> 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. </quote>
A user of your device, running Mer, should always be able to replace the OS image on your device with one of his own making with ease. This can be fullfilled through:
- Avoiding bootloaders and firmware replacement software requiring firmwares to be signed.
- Publishing to the Mer community information on bootloader, firmware format and methods of firmware replacement.
Be aware that Mer uses GPLv3-licensed software, so tivoization may already be forbidden.
Open source kernel modules
We ask that kernel modules used for your device is open source. In 5 years, it should still be possible to get a modern kernel running on your device, and closed source kernel modules are linked to specific kernel versions, hence hindering future development of Mer for your device.
The advantage for you is that community members with your device can continue development for your device, even when your company has moved on.
= Redistribution of firmware and differentiation
We ask that you seek to allow the Mer community to redistribute binary copies of any firmware that is needed to support your device. The Mer community can organize a procedure such that the firmware is only redistributable to users of your device, identified with their serial number, or MAC address, etc.
If you choose to differentiate your device through bundled software, we ask that you allow same redistribution rights for this.
The advantage is that a user of your device can at any point in the future build a fresh Mer OS image without losing any functionality in software or hardware that he had when he had the original firmware.