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Re: How long is it acceptable to leave *undistributable* files in the kernel package?



On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 19:45, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 15, 2004 at 05:51:03PM -0500, Joe Wreschnig wrote:
> > On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 14:38, Andreas Schuldei wrote:
> > > * Nathanael Nerode (neroden@twcny.rr.com) [040615 21:27]:
> > > > I request that the people planning to take over kernel maintenance comment
> > > > ASAP on their plans regarding this issue, and what sort of help would be
> > > > appreciated.
> > > 
> > > would it be ok if they hand in their humble suggestions at your
> > > front desk in written form? or would you rather want them to
> > > report to you in person?
> > > 
> > > hint: your tone is not appropriet and you are not the one to
> > > order them around.
> > 
> > Then who is? This problem has been known about for a long time, and a
> > lot of developers would like to see some progress on it. No one should
> > *need* to order Debian developers to follow copyright law in their
> > Debian work; it should be the default. Plus, I'd rather Nathanael do it
> > than the US government. (I also found his tone civil, if curt.)
> > 
> > It's not even a request to remove it, just one asking for some
> > indication on what kind of schedule or plans are going on, and *an offer
> > for help*.
> 
> The correct thing to do was what I did -- contact the USB maintainer, who
> was previously unaware of this problem:
> 
> <gregkh> willy: cool, I got back a response with an email from emagic giving the blessing to include the drivers in linux.
> <gregkh> willy: just looks like I need to add the following:
> <gregkh> Permission is hereby granted for the distribution of this firmware 
> <gregkh>         image as part of a Linux or other Open Source operating system kernel 
> <gregkh>         in text or binary form as required. 
> <gregkh> as the keyspan drivers have.
> 
> So, problem resolved.  No need to remove anything.

At best that solves a third of the problem. What about all the other
copyright holders of the kernel, have they agreed to link with the
non-GPLd code? (Before someone tells me kernel developers don't care, or
"this isn't linking", [0]) And once the copyright issue is dealt with,
there's still the issue of meeting the DFSG.

This is as good first step. But nothing is yet "resolved".

[0] http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2003-18/1472.html
-- 
Joe Wreschnig <piman@debian.org>

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