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Re: please release sarge instead of removing binary firmware



* Anthony Towns (aj@azure.humbug.org.au) [040416 10:25]:
> Because when you have a compile-time dependency you create a derived
> work -- vmlinuz -- of both the GPLed work and the firmware. Creating
> derived works is an act covered by copyright, and can only be done with
> the permission of the rights holder; and if the only permission you have
> comes in the form of the GPL, then you're required to make available
> the complete source to the entire derived work.

It is not necessarily a derived work, but could also be just a
collection of works. (And I consider this to be the case here.)

However, I appreciate that our Release Managers are quite conservative
in this, and want a statement of a know good lawyer before accepting
this, not my (or anyone else) laymen view or considering. Also, being
rather strict for legal issues is a feature, not a bug.


Cheers,
Andi
-- 
   http://home.arcor.de/andreas-barth/
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