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Re: tg3 firmware - was (Fw: [CASE#221365]: Closed - need firmware files)



On Fri, 2009-04-10 at 03:32 +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote:
> On Apr 10, "brian m. carlson" <sandals@crustytoothpaste.ath.cx> wrote:
> 
> > I don't know about you, but I'd much prefer to modify any sort of
> > program, firmware or not, using C or assembly rather than editing the
> > binary directly.  I suspect that this is the case for any reasonable
> > programmer.  Thus, we do not have the preferred form for modification,
> > and thus, we cannot distribute it under the GPLv2.
> Thank you for the great work you are doing to improve Debian.

Brian is right; binary-only firmware generally can't be distributed
under GPLv2.  I forget what the status of tg3 is but Michael Chan of
Broadcom has worked with us on separating bnx2 and bnx2x firmware under
an appropriate licence, so I expect it will be possible to fix any
remaining problems with tg3 firmware licencing.  You are doing nothing
but insulting people who point out the legal and ethical issues with
embedded firmware blobs, and that certainly doesn't improve Debian.

Ben.

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