Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265328AbUATJag (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Jan 2004 04:30:36 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265329AbUATJag (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Jan 2004 04:30:36 -0500 Received: from denise.shiny.it ([194.20.232.1]:32679 "EHLO denise.shiny.it") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265328AbUATJae (ORCPT ); Tue, 20 Jan 2004 04:30:34 -0500 Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 10:30:25 +0100 (CET) From: Giuliano Pochini To: David Schwartz cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: RE: License question In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1075 Lines: 27 On Mon, 19 Jan 2004, David Schwartz wrote: > > > Since their code is C++ I already rewote everything in C, but it > > also contains the binary firmwares which I can't rewrite. That's > > why I asked you about the license. > > Then you have another problem. You can't place something under the GPL if > you don't have the source code to it. This issue was raised on the list a few months ago. Someone's opinion was that the firmware is not executed by the same processor that runs Linux, thus it's data, not code. Uploading a firmware is like printing an image on the screen. Anyway I can upload the firmware from userspace. On most (but not all) cards I only need the firmware at startup, so I also save memory. Some cards also have an ASIC which must be loaded. That data is not code because it's not executed. -- Giuliano. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/