Bug#390994: linux-2.6: e100 microcode: distributable with BSD license, but license not in Linux source

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 08:07:43PM -0700, Steve Langasek wrote:
> severity 390994 normal
> thanks
> 
> On Wed, Oct 04, 2006 at 04:08:02AM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> > Package: linux-2.6
> > Severity: serious
> > Justification: copyright
> 
> As BSD is a GPL-compatible license, it is valid to distribute this work only
> under the terms of the GPL; furthermore, I don't see any evidence that the

Well, if there is acompanying source code, sure :)

> firmware blob included in e100.c came from OpenBSD, so it's entirely
> possible that it was licensed to Linux under the GPL and to OpenBSD under

More importantly, it is important to know if they are identic firmware blobs
or not. Once we know they are exact copies, this point becomes moot.

> the BSD license.  The e100.c file also includes a valid copyright notice.
> I don't see any policy violations here.

Indeed, it is covered by the GPL, which doesn't cover distribution without
source. A quick look at the source shows :

  #define D101M_B_RCVBUNDLE_UCODE \
  {\
  0x00550215, 0xFFFF0437, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x06A70789, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0x0558FFFF, \

notice the UCODE part, this is commonly understood to mean micro-code, and as
thus it is indeed code for which there is most probably another source formwat
than the above as "prefered source of modification", probably some C code or
some human readable kind of assembly mnemonic list.

Friendly,

Sven Luther