Re: DFSG violations in Lenny: Summarizing the choices
On Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:39:26 -0500, Theodore Tso wrote:
> So if people think that they are going to be able to get firmware in
> source form so that popular wireless chips can be driven using 100% DFSG
> pure firmware, I suspect they will have a very long wait ahead of them.
> The issue is that software controlled radios are cheaper, and that
> drives the mass market, so that will be what most manufacturers will
> use.
Here's an interesting problem with DFSG-free firmware such as those
created by the FreeMAC project (for prism54 cards): if they never get FCC-
certified, is it legal for Debian to distribute them? They seem to fall
into the category of DFSG-free-but-illegal software such as dvdcss or the
patented software that we refuse to distribute. So unless the project
bends a little here, users are never going to get working hardware no
matter what happens.
--
Sam Morris
http://robots.org.uk/
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