On Wed, 2007-02-21 at 01:38 -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On 02/21/07 00:59, Ben Hutchings wrote: > > On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 18:51 -0500, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote: > >> On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 06:06:45PM -0500, Edward Allcutt wrote: > >>> On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 07:26 +0000, Ian Campbell wrote: > >>>> 2. You may not copy, modify, rent, sell, distribute or transfer > >>>> any part of the Firmware except as provided in this Agreement, and > >>>> you agree to prevent unauthorized copying of the Firmware. > >>> I'm not sure how the Debian project can prevent unauthorized copying... > >>> > >> I thought that as well, but it appears that they clause is part of the > >> end user license agreement. Since Debian is not an end user, rather an > >> ISV in their terms, that clause does not specifically apply to Debian. Well then we would have no permission to distribute it at all (unless somehow we qualify as an OEM, which I don't see). > > How about individual mirror operators? They should not be prevented > > from using this software because they also distribute it. > > > > (Why do companies care about "unauthorised" copying of firmware that's > > essential to and only useful for their hardware? I've never understood > > this. Perhaps it's something the lawyers put in by default.) > > Unauthorized copying seems to mean "copy it so you can disassemble > and reverse engineer the driver". How does a mirror operator know what people wish to do with it? It seems to be that Debian would need to get special permission for distribution from Hauppuage, as itvdriver.org appears to have done (http://dl.ivtvdriver.org/ivtv/firmware/ says "I am very grateful for Hauppauge for giving us the permission to redistribute these firmwares.") This is probably best discussed on debian-legal though, isn't it? Ben. -- Ben Hutchings The obvious mathematical breakthrough [to break modern encryption] would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers. - Bill Gates
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