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Re: [debian-knoppix] Asus A7N8X Deluxe



Quoting Bjoern Laessig <b.laessig@tu-bs.de>:

> >>> 2.1.2  Linux Exception.  Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of
> >>> Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux
> >>> operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the
> >>> binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for
> >>> unzipping of compressed files).
> 
> so it could be in debian-nonfree ?
> But it is not. And it is the same Licence as the nvidia Xfree module and
> this is not in debian-nonfree
> 
> Sorry fpr OT, but where is my mistake? (my english to bad?
 
Legally, the Linux Exception does allow Nvidia-licensed modules to be included
and distributed (i've contacted nvidia about including them in my derivative,
and they had absolutly no problems with it, which is why i've included it
myself). Klaus has objected that the zlib-compression used would modify the
binary, and thus violate the license (which is correct), but again I've
contacted Nvidia and they stated that 'compressing' should be seen as any sort
of compression, not being library-dependant. Now I'm personally not going to
whine about the difference (having personal confirmation), but this is a
difference serious enough for it to not be included in either Debian non-free or
Knoppix, both using different compression types and thus, if the license is
taken literally, would be incompatible for even distributing it.

Note that this was about the XFree86 driver, but the same would apply for the
nforce driver supplied by Nvidia. 

Cheers, and IANAL,
Alex

PS. I've CC'ed this to nvidia.com. I'm not going to lobby for inclusion of
nvidia-drivers into Knoppix (it's a reason why people use my derivative, sue me
;) but it's fair enough that Nvidia should be aware of problems regarding their
license. Even if it's non-free :)


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