David Given wrote:
If they were strongly signed, then there should be no problem distributing the source code, right? People won't be able to make modifications. It may not help with DFSG compliance though...I believe that most if not all firmware images these days are signed or encrypted.
Part of the problem, AFAIK, is with law. If so, we are not going to fix problems with the law by pointing out how silly it is on this mailing list. In fact, changing the law in multiple parts of the world is probably outside the scope of Debian.
As such we are essentially sending the message to manufacturers that they need to distribute firmware on the hardware itself (ROM) instead of distributing it with the software, because they aren't legally allowed to distribute the source and we don't want to distribute the firmware without the source.
Even if it is not law, but an excuse by the manufacturers (there seems to be some disagreement here), we still aren't going to get the manufacturers to change their mind by discussing how silly it is here, or by encouraging people to buy hardware with the firmware on ROM.
Brian May