Re: Firmware files - GPL compliant?
On Mon, Sep 24, 2001 at 10:44:03AM -0700, Walter Landry wrote:
>
> There is also the question about whether the firmware is in the
> "preferred form for modification", as required by the GPL. You may
> want to contact the copyright holders to ask what is their preferred
> form.
>
This is an interesting question in itself. For example, if the microcode is
for a target which has no microassembler or compiler, then it is indeed in
the preferred form for modification by default.
If the microcode programming language is so simple that a hex dump and the
source code have a 1:1 correspondence, then the same thing probably applies.
Maybe those involved should check the dumps for common opcodes and try to
determine the microcontroller type to see if any of this applies. In many
cases, a commented disassembly is as good or better than the original source
code.
--
Brian Ristuccia
brian@ristuccia.com
bristucc@cs.uml.edu
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