Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262626AbVDHAcL (ORCPT ); Thu, 7 Apr 2005 20:32:11 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262636AbVDHAcK (ORCPT ); Thu, 7 Apr 2005 20:32:10 -0400 Received: from emailhub.stusta.mhn.de ([141.84.69.5]:266 "HELO mailout.stusta.mhn.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S262626AbVDHAbi (ORCPT ); Thu, 7 Apr 2005 20:31:38 -0400 Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 02:31:36 +0200 From: Adrian Bunk To: Sven Luther Cc: Humberto Massa , 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. Message-ID: <20050408003136.GI4325@stusta.de> Mail-Followup-To: Adrian Bunk , Sven Luther , Humberto Massa , debian-legal@lists.debian.org, debian-kernel@lists.debian.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: <42527E89.4040506@almg.gov.br> <20050405135701.GA24361@pegasos> <20050407205647.GB4325@stusta.de> <20050407210505.GB17963@pegasos> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050407210505.GB17963@pegasos> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6+20040907i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2186 Lines: 61 On Thu, Apr 07, 2005 at 11:05:05PM +0200, Sven Luther wrote: > On Thu, Apr 07, 2005 at 10:56:47PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote: >... > > If your statement was true that Debian must take more care regarding > > legal risks than commercial distributions, can you explain why Debian > > exposes the legal risks of distributing software capable of decoding > > MP3's to all of it's mirrors? > > I don't know and don't really care. I don't maintain any mp3 player (err, > actually i do, i package quark, but use it mostly to play .oggs, maybe i > should think twice about this now that you made me aware of it), but in any > case, i am part of the debian kernel maintainer team, and as such have a > responsability to get those packages uploaded and past the screening of the > ftp-masters. I believe the planned solution is vastly superior to the current > one of simply removing said firmware blobs from the drivers, which caused more > harm than helped, which is why we are set to clarifying this for the > post-sarge kernels. Debian doesn't seem to care much about the possible legal problems of patents. The firmware issues are an urgent real problem? Debian should define how much legal risk they are willing to impose on their mirrors and distributors and should act accordingly in all areas. But ignoring some areas while being more religious than RMS in other areas is simply silly. > That said, i was under the understanding that after the SCO disaster, > clarification of licencing issues and copyright attributions was a welcome > thing here, but maybe i misunderstood those whole issues. "SCO disaster"? It is a disaster for SCO. > Friendly, > > Sven Luther cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed - 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/