Re: Bug#239952: kernel-source-2.6.4: qla2xxx contains non-freefirmware

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Henning Makholm wrote:

> Scripsit Walter Landry <wlandry@ucsd.edu>
>> Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net> wrote:
> 
>> > A side question: Does -legal think that it would be OK for Debian to
>> > distribute *checksums* of the non-free magic blob-of-bits, such that
>> > it can be located inside a Windows driver on a disk without needing to
>> > know its exact position?
> 
>> A SHA1 checksum is 160 bits or 20 bytes.  This sentence is longer than
>> that.  I would say that it isn't copyrightable,
> 
> I agree about that, of course. I was imagining that someone might
> complain that we woundn't be providing "source" for those 20 bytes,
> but it seems I wasn't communicating that clearly enough.
Heh.  Let's think about this.

You can replace it with a different, modified checksum based on a different
magic blob; would anyone ever want to do anything else with the *checksum*?

That seems sufficient to be the "preferred form for modification" from my
point of view (as long as the checksum generator is free software).  So
yes, I think the checksum constitutes its own source for DFSG purposes.

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