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Re: Purge of firmware to recommence



On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 09:31:14PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> In addition, a package in 'non-free' will be required to hold the three 
> firmware files for ATI's cards.  

*sigh*

Please note that this is explicitly _not_ the case. Firmware is okay in
main for sarge as long as it's not distributed in a way that violates
the GPL.

> Similarly, 'non-free' packages will be needed for other hardware, 

Ditto.

http://people.debian.org/~ajt/sarge_rc_policy.txt has been updated thus:

        An exception exists for "firmware" - that is code that
        will be uploaded to a hardware device as part of making it
        functional. This may be distributed in main even without source
        or modifications being allowed; but you must be careful not to
        violate the GPL by incorporating it into a GPLed program. This
        generally means using the hotplug request_firmware() interface
        to load the firmware from userspace. The firmware does not need
        to be moved into a separate package, however.

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
Don't assume I speak for anyone but myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

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