Re: non-free firmware in kernel modules, aggregation and unclearcopyright notice.

From: Jeff Garzik
Date: Mon Apr 04 2005 - 16:02:25 EST


Sven Luther wrote:
On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 03:55:55PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:

Matthew Wilcox wrote:

On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 10:51:30AM -0700, Greg KH wrote:


Then let's see some acts. We (lkml) are not the ones with the percieved
problem, or the ones discussing it.


Actually, there are some legitimate problems with some of the files in
the Linux source base. Last time this came up, the Acenic firmware was
mentioned:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00078.html

Seems to me that situation is still not resolved.

And it looks like no one cares enough to make the effort to resolve this...

I would love an open source acenic firmware.


Yep, but in the meantime, let's clearly mark said firmware as
not-covered-by-the-GPL. In the acenic case it seems to be even easier, as the
firmware is in a separate acenic_firmware.h file, and it just needs to have
the proper licencing statement added, saying that it is not covered by the
GPL, and then giving the information under what licence it is being
distributed.

Who has meaningfully contacted Alteon (probably "Neterion" now) about this? What is the progress of that request?


Jeff, since your name was found in the tg3.c case, and you seem to care about
this too, what is your take on this proposal ?

Friendly,

Bluntly, Debian is being a pain in the ass ;-)

There will always be non-free firmware to deal with, for key hardware.

Jeff


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/