Bug#920437: ITP: displaylink -- Proprietary driver for DisplayLink devices
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Hanno Stock <opensource@hanno-stock.de>
* Package name : displaylink
Version : 4.4
Upstream Author : DisplayLink (UK) Ltd.
* URL : https://www.displaylink.com/downloads
* License : proprietary
Programming Lang: binary
Description : Proprietary driver for DisplayLink devices
This is the proprietary binary component of the driver for DisplayLink
devices. It communicates via libusb with the DisplayLink device and uses
the opensource evdi kernel module for presenting a virtual graphics
device to the system.
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DisplayLink devices are for example USB based docking stations and
USB-attachable secondary screens. Unfortunately newer DisplayLink devices
are not supported by libdlo, an open source driver for older DisplayLink
devices.
However DisplayLink provides an Ubuntu installer for their newer drivers
and allows repackaging the binary components for other distributions.
According to a DisplayLink employee: "The text of the license was written
to ensure the driver can be repacked by other distros and redistribute.
As long as the text of license file is replicated, and binaries are
redistributed as provided in the .run package (unmodified), and it is
still possible to identify what component is what and where it came from,
the license terms are met IMO." [1]
In order for Debian to support DisplayLink devices it would make sense
to package this driver for the non-free component.
[1] https://www.displaylink.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64854&highlight=license
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