Hi,
I think this is a reasonable conclusion that I fully agree.
If one is mean, he could try is to mail Atmel, saying them that for a
pretty large setup of WLAN-Cards, his company says that the complete
(i.e. with the firmware) drivers have to be under the GPL, and if they
answer "Yes, get ours, they are under the GPL", you buy the cards (or
just one) and a week later request the source for the firmware. But this
would piss them and other vedords off, so let's not do it :-)
nomeata
Am Do, den 27.11.2003 schrieb Anthony DeRobertis um 10:37:
> On Nov 25, 2003, at 18:27, Joachim Breitner wrote:
>
> >>
> > Ok, your point seems valid here, especially in private business and in
> > isolated products (yet another text editor). But in this case, we are
> > talking about something I need to make the hardware run. And though I
> > didn't pay for the firmware, I payed for the hardware (here is our
> > contract) and thus need the firmware. And along with the firmware they
> > hand out to me because I bought their hardware, they give me the
> > promise
> > (the GPL).
>
> You probably bought a box marked as having Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
> support and maybe Mac support as well. I very much doubt it mentioned
> having GPL'd Linux drivers. If you weren't aware of it, its hard to see
> it being part of a contract, at least in any sane jurisdiction.
>
> Now, you may of been aware of it from their web site, and made a
> purchase decision based on it. In that case, you're probably right: It
> would be considered part of the contract, and a court would award
> reasonable damages. I'd suspect that a court would award you your money
> back (plus possibly expenses). The furthest I can see a court going is
> ordering them not to refer to the drivers as GPL'd on their website any
> longer.
>
> > Assume you alter your example: I sell you my old computer. I say, if
> > you
> > want, you can get an operating system for that computer for free. You
> > take it. I give you the disk "as part of the system" (though not
> > necessarily the same time) and then all promises made along this (it
> > works, you can get a second disk if your dogs eats this one, you can
> > get
> > the source) are binding.
>
> If you agreed to do that as part of the original purchase, then
> certainly. If not, it gets more murky.
--
Joachim "nomeata" Breitner
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