Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261930AbVDES4p (ORCPT ); Tue, 5 Apr 2005 14:56:45 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261910AbVDESzW (ORCPT ); Tue, 5 Apr 2005 14:55:22 -0400 Received: from zcars04f.nortelnetworks.com ([47.129.242.57]:1208 "EHLO zcars04f.nortelnetworks.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261746AbVDESuj (ORCPT ); Tue, 5 Apr 2005 14:50:39 -0400 Message-ID: <4252DDE6.5040500@nortel.com> Date: Tue, 05 Apr 2005 12:50:14 -0600 X-Sybari-Space: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 From: Chris Friesen User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040115 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Josselin Mouette CC: linux-os@analogic.com, debian-legal@lists.debian.org, debian-kernel@lists.debian.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: non-free firmware in kernel modules, aggregation and unclear copyright notice. References: <4252A821.9030506@almg.gov.br> <1112723637.4878.14.camel@mirchusko.localnet> In-Reply-To: <1112723637.4878.14.camel@mirchusko.localnet> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1099 Lines: 27 Josselin Mouette wrote: > The fact is also that mixing them with a GPLed software gives > an result you can't redistribute - although it seems many people > disagree with that assertion now. This is only true if the result is considered a "derivative work" of the gpl'd code. The GPL states "In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License." Since the main cpu does not actually run the binary firmware, the fact that it lives in main memory with the code that the cpu *does* run is irrelevent. In this case, the Debian stance is that the kernel proper and the binary firmware are "merely aggregated" in a volume of storage ( ie. system memory). Chris - 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/