RFC: position statement from the kernel team over the current non-free firmware GR vote.
The kernel team consider that neither of the two proposals currently under vote
are a good solution to the non-free firmware problem.
The proposal made by Josselin (Choice 2) will have a hard time to pass, as it
needs 3:1 supermajority. It gives a longer term exception for firmwares beyond
the etch release, which we believe not being necessary, and furthermore, it is
an amendment to the original proposal from Steve, now withdrawn.
The proposal originally from Frederik, but amended by Manoj (Choice 1), has
serious issues, and doesn't correspond to the wish of the kernel team, as expressed
by the position statement at [1] which followed the meeting of the kernel team about
the firmware issue. This proposal is titled : "Choice 1: Release Etch even with firmware"
but this is highly misleading, since the proposal states :
1. It forces us to not release as part of etch those firmwares removed in sarge,
which include popular drivers used for installation as tg3 and acenic.
(Point 3.)
2. It means illegal to distribute firmwares will have to go (good), altough it is
silent about the sourceless GPL ones.
3. It means we will not distribute firmwares with non-DFSG free licenses. This is
highly confusing, because the distinction is made on the licenses, and not on
the actual freeness, and it thus favours firmwares under free licenses, but not
respecting the terms of the licenses, over those firmwares whose upstream author
has clarified their licensing, like broadcom did for the tg3 license.
For all these reasons, the kernel team believes that the solution proposed at [2], and
which already reached enough seconds, and will thus be needed to be voted on, is a better
solution, and since it is not possible anymore to amend the current ballot, we urge all
voters to vote "Further Discussion".
On behalf of the Debian Kernel Team,
Friendly,
Sven Luther
[1] -
http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing#head-98e7641feaea08b775f4d5c58d071b77ff172c90
[2] -
http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing#head-bf5edfa54af87d70d2f39f434703848b55569eef
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