Re: non-free firmware
On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 01:45:11AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > You may redistribute the hardware specific firmware binary file
> > under the following terms:
>
> > 1. Redistribution of source code (only if applicable),
> > must retain the above copyright notice, this list of
> > conditions and the following disclaimer.
>
> > 2. Redistribution in binary form must reproduce the above
> > copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
> > following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other
> > materials provided with the distribution.
>
> > 3. The name of QLogic Corporation may not be used to
> > endorse or promote products derived from this software
> > without specific prior written permission
>
> > Which unless someone released a heavily modified GPL licence silently in out
> > back, very very far from the GPL itself.
>
> Yes; this is not GPL, this is a simple BSD license. The BSD license is
> certainly considered free: it grants us all the redistribution and
> modification rights that we require in order for a work to be included in
> main. The only thing it doesn't grant us in this case (which is not a
> license issue, though the license does acknowledge the issue) is source
> redistribution simply because we don't have any source code.
It is not BSD license, it does not grant the right to distribute modified versions.
So even with the source this would still be nonfree.
That is a frequent issue with firmwares, that I personnaly find more
serious that lack of source.
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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