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Re: non-free firmware: driver in main or contrib?



Andreas Barth <aba@not.so.argh.org> writes:

> * Brian Thomas Sniffen (bts@alum.mit.edu) [041014 16:35]:
>> "Marco d'Itri" <md@Linux.IT> writes:
>> > Why should this be worse than firmwares distributed on flash, which is not
>> > even explicitly licensed at all?
>
>> Because I don't need a license to use the firmware on flash, and I
>> never need to make a copy or distribute any copies other than those
>> bought and paid for, and covered by first-sale -- the copyright owner
>> already got his royalty when I bought the device.
>
> Do you really think that the freeness of a software (i.e. whether we can
> include it in main) really depends on whether some non-free stuff is
> placed on an eprom or a cdrom? I plainly disagree.

But you think that the freeness of some program depends on whether
some stuff in a device is implemented with a microprocessor or an FPGA?

That's no more consistent than my position -- I think rather less --
and impractical to boot.

-Brian

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu



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