Re: Moglen on kernel firmware blobs
On Sat, Jan 21, 2006 at 12:18:06AM +0000, M?ns Rullg?rd wrote:
> 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.
What Moglen says is that the Linux kernel being GPL does not force the
blob to be GPL. There still the question of actually having a license
to distribute the blobs. If that license is the GPL we are back to
square one.
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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