Re: Moglen on kernel firmware blobs

[Måns Rullgård <mru@inprovide.com>]

Marco d'Itri <md@Linux.IT> writes:

> http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6028746-2.html?tag=st.next
>
> Moglen:
>
> I would distinguish the blobs from the proprietary drivers in the
> kernel. If the kernel's terms were unambiguously GPL, which they are
> apparently not, (proprietary drivers) would be forbidden. The
> blobs--though they are ethically objectionable to the Free Software
> Foundation, which believes that users ought to know what's running--are
> different because they are separate works when executed running in
> separate computers. From the point of view of the GPL work called the
> Linux kernel, they're just data.

Exactly what I've always been saying.  Call them non-free if you will,
but don't get it mixed up with the GPL.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com