Re: Are BLOBs source code?
Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de> writes:
> * Goswin von Brederlow:
>
>>>> That's why I say the BLOB should be in a file rather than the driver.
>>>
>>> The problem is that this introduces unnecessary complexity. If the
>>> blob is required for booting, it has to be put into the initial
>>> ramdisk anyway, and a fail to see a significant advantage over the
>>> compiled-in case (neither legally nor philosophically).
>>
>> Compiled in the blob MUST comply to the GPL. The nature of being a
>> blob already seems to violate that.
>>
>> As external files other licenses can be used.
>
> I'm not sure that there is a significant difference between ELF
> linking and other forms of creating a combined file (the initial RAM
> disk is likely to contain GPL-covered software, too, and for these
> programs, we won't have the implicit permission to ignore some GPL
> requirements).
The initrd, just like an iso image, is an aggregation.
|GPL:
| In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the
| Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a
| volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other
| work under the scope of this License.
That means that different files on the initrd can have different
licenses.
MfG
Goswin
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