Re: [AMENDMENT]: Release Etch now, with source-less but legal and freely licensed firmware

["Markus Laire" <malaire@gmail.com>]

On 9/28/06, Frank Küster <frank@debian.org> wrote:
> Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> >   2) firmware under the GPL, but with missing source. The GPL is free, but
> >   the absence of source code for the firmware blobs makes it a violation of
> >   the GPL, and thus undistributable.
>
> Here, the upstream license is "GPL", which complies with the DFSG, and
> the driver is therefore included if we are "legally allowed to do so".
> The GPL *does* grant us the right to distribute binaries without source.
> It also requires us to do things we cannot factually do (namely, provide
> the source in the same place, or upon request with written offer etc.).
> But I understood the phrasing of Manojs proposal that it doesn't matter
> whether we can actually fulfill all requirements, as long as we can
> distribute.

You are wrong.
GPLv2[1] section 7 says, among other things "If you cannot distribute
so as to satisfy ... your obligations under this License ... then as a
consequence you may not distribute the Program at all."

And without the source (or a written offer mentioned in section 3) you
can't fullfill the section 3 of GPLv2 and so you can't distribute at
all.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

--
Markus Laire
Disclaimer: IANAL, IANADD