On Thu, 8 Mar 2007 09:46:05 +1000 Kel Modderman wrote: > On Thursday 08 March 2007 04:23, Francesco Poli wrote: [...] > > However, the license does not meet the DFSG (it's not even close to > > meeting them...): has Intel been contacted and asked to provide the > > firmware (with source code) in a DFSG-free manner (for instance, > > under the terms of the GNU GPL v2, or of the Expat/MIT license)? > > Intel has recently had some press coverage about their Free Software > > drivers for integrated graphics chips: I appreciated that move, > > maybe they are willing to get some more good publicity by freeing > > this firmware... > > Quoting from: > http://intellinuxwireless.org/index.php?n=FAQ&s=license > > [quote] > Q. The license for the binaries needed with the newer projects > (ipw3945 and iwlwifi) seems much cleaner than the license for the > ipw2100 and ipw2200. Can you change the terms of the older license? > [ ipw2100 and ipw2200 specific ] > A. Unfortunately, no. Those binaries contain intellectual property > licensed from third parties, and Intel must follow certain > contractual obligations in licensing for those components. The > ipw3945 and iwlwifi related binaries are all Intel-developed, and we > are able to use a simplified license for that product. > [/quote] "We would really love to be more permissive, but we cannot, 'cause that other evil guy forbids us." As I keep reading answers like this, I'm less and less convinced of their good faith... All this pointing fingers to unspecified "third parties" and passing the buck to them seems like a cheap excuse: if they managed to get permission to use the "intellectual property" (whatever that means) of some "third parties", they are probably also able to get permission to disclose source code in a DFSG-free manner, as long as they really want to. After all, Intel has deep pockets, they could even pay enough money to obtain copyright transfer, if necessary... Disappointed. -- http://frx.netsons.org/progs/scripts/refresh-pubring.html Need to refresh your keyring in a piecewise fashion? ..................................................... Francesco Poli . GnuPG key fpr == C979 F34B 27CE 5CD8 DC12 31B5 78F4 279B DD6D FCF4
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