Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261970AbUJ1TE5 (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:04:57 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261758AbUJ1TE4 (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:04:56 -0400 Received: from mail.gurulabs.com ([67.137.148.7]:43413 "EHLO mail.gurulabs.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261970AbUJ1TAb (ORCPT ); Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:00:31 -0400 Subject: Re: Intel also needs convincing on firmware licensing. From: Dax Kelson To: Denis Vlasenko Cc: gene.heskett@verizon.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Han Boetes In-Reply-To: <200410280850.51033.vda@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua> References: <20041028022532.GX26130@boetes.org> <200410272346.12283.gene.heskett@verizon.net> <200410280850.51033.vda@port.imtp.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1098990028.3856.277.camel@mentorng.gurulabs.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.6 (1.4.6-2) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 13:00:28 -0600 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1401 Lines: 35 On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 23:50, Denis Vlasenko wrote: > However, disassemblers do exist. Hiding secrets in binary .o > files is silly. Who cares what the secrets in the firmware are. Again, it does not execute on your computer's CPU. It does not taint the kernel. The Linux kernel driver is 100% GPLd, no binary blobs. Nearly all the devices in your computer have firmware. Your keyboard, your CDROM drive, your graphics card. It is hypocritical to clamor for the source code to the IPW2100/2200/etc while not clamoring for the source code to all the other firmwares in your computer. It is unfortunate that the firmware isn't stored onboard the Intel card, and instead needs to be loaded, however, this is a pretty minor inconvenience. The only remaining issue, if the redistribution terms of the firmware are liberal enough so that RHEL/FC and other free minded distros can include the files out of the box in /lib/hotplug/firmware directory. Apparently the terms are OK with SUSE as they include the firmware in SUSE LINUX v9.2. This isn't a huge surprise as SUSE has always been more willing to bundle less than free works. Dax Kelson Guru Labs - 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/