I read the article, and a few points stuck out to me:
This has been a restriction since 2021; now it’s documented in the files and not just the online EULA (ie consistent)
This is a protection to disallow other companies like Intel and AMD from profiting off of Nvidia’s work
Nothing is stopping anybody from porting the software to other hardware, eg
Recompiling existing CUDA programs remains perfectly legal. To simplify this, both AMD and Intel have tools to port CUDA programs to their ROCm (1) and OpenAPI platforms, respectively.
I’m all for piracy and personal freedoms, but it doesn’t seem to be what this is about. It’s about combating other companies profiting off Nvidia’s work. Companies should be able to fight back against other companies (or countries).
I mean it’s not like Nvidia is unreasonably suing open-source projects into oblivion or anything, or subpoenaing websites for user data; at least, not yet.
Their motive is likely more profit but the result is an unjust restriction on user software freedom. It doesn’t matter if they make less money, maximising profit is not why we grant them copyright. Nvidia is often unreasonable, fuck off Nvidia.
maximising profit is not why we grant them copyright
That’s the only reason copyright exists. Because society decided that if you’re the one to put work into developing something, you should be the one reaping the profits, at least for some time.
No, that’s a lie. Copyright exists solely for the purpose “to promote the progress of science and the useful arts” – i.e., to enrich the Public Domain in the long run. Enabling creators to profit is nothing more than a means to that end.
You could argue corporate lobbying has molded copyright for profit’s sake (e.g. we can thank Disney for copyright lasting an unreasonably long time) but that’s not all copyright does. Copyleft is a hack of copyright that lets people use software/media created by another but legally compels you to share it under the same license - meaning a greedy corporation can’t just take your work and not share back.
There’s a good argument that Nvidia only had the money to do the work because of anticompetitive practices, and so shouldn’t be allowed to benefit from it unless everyone’s allowed to benefit from it, otherwise it’s just cementing their dominant position further.
I read the article, and a few points stuck out to me:
I’m all for piracy and personal freedoms, but it doesn’t seem to be what this is about. It’s about combating other companies profiting off Nvidia’s work. Companies should be able to fight back against other companies (or countries).
I mean it’s not like Nvidia is unreasonably suing open-source projects into oblivion or anything, or subpoenaing websites for user data; at least, not yet.
Their motive is likely more profit but the result is an unjust restriction on user software freedom. It doesn’t matter if they make less money, maximising profit is not why we grant them copyright. Nvidia is often unreasonable, fuck off Nvidia.
That’s the only reason copyright exists. Because society decided that if you’re the one to put work into developing something, you should be the one reaping the profits, at least for some time.
No, that’s a lie. Copyright exists solely for the purpose “to promote the progress of science and the useful arts” – i.e., to enrich the Public Domain in the long run. Enabling creators to profit is nothing more than a means to that end.
You could argue corporate lobbying has molded copyright for profit’s sake (e.g. we can thank Disney for copyright lasting an unreasonably long time) but that’s not all copyright does. Copyleft is a hack of copyright that lets people use software/media created by another but legally compels you to share it under the same license - meaning a greedy corporation can’t just take your work and not share back.
There’s a good argument that Nvidia only had the money to do the work because of anticompetitive practices, and so shouldn’t be allowed to benefit from it unless everyone’s allowed to benefit from it, otherwise it’s just cementing their dominant position further.