Re: more evil firmwares found
On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, Adam Majer wrote:
> 1. The kernel is GPL, firmware is part of kernel and thus GPL
> compatible.
This is not necessarily true, for reasons previously discussed in this
thread. In short, if we are not able to properly distribute the
firmware in compliance with the terms of the GPL, we cannot distribute
it at all. The ability to distribute it is the first thing we must be
able to do, even before we consider whether a given work satisfies the
DFSG.
> the binary blob is *the only* way to distribute the driver in the
> kernel - pure source code will not compile.
That's not terribly important for the issue at hand. The GPL doesn't
require that the source code be able to compile... it merely requires
the prefered form for modification along with whatever scripts are
used to generate the compiled form. [Read GPL §3 very carefully.]
> Hasn't anyone considered that maybe the binary blob *is* the source
> code?
Yes, and we've pretty much rejected it. While they might actually use
ASM, I've yet to run into someone who regularly codes (and modifies
their code) in machine language.
Don Armstrong
--
THERE IS NO GRAVITY THE WORLD SUCKS
-- Vietnam War Penquin Lighter
http://gallery.donarmstrong.com/clippings/vietnam_there_is_no_gravity.jpg
http://www.donarmstrong.com
http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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