2023-12-16 19:58:05

by Arend Van Spriel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: License of old broadcom BT firmwares and WiFi calibration files

On 12/16/2023 6:45 PM, Svyatoslav Ryhel wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I am trying to submit bluetooth firmwares (BCM4329B1.*,*.hcd and
> BCM4330B1.*,*.hcd) and wifi calibration files
> (brcmfmac4329-sdio.*,*.txt and brcmfmac4329-sdio.*,*.txt) from a few
> Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 based devices into linux-fimware.
>
> I have faced ambiguous license issue since those files were part of
> Android Images of different vendors. Those vendors did not provide a
> license nor for android images, not for these files.
>
> Maybe you can clarify licensing of these files and you can suggest a
> way they could be accepted into linux-firmware?

Basically, the firmware files in linux-firmware fall under the license
conditions that are in the repository. This means the firmware you want
to submit would get a different license. The main reason is that the
license in linux-firmware allows redistributing the firmware files which
is an important aspect for linux distro maintainers.

So the device vendors would have to give their blessing. For these old
chipsets they probably got it from Broadcom. I never had much contact
with BT side so not sure who to contact about this.

Regarding the calibration files it is a bit awkward. There is a
precedent as these have been published by community under GPL license.
Broadcom never released those as they are board specific and the device
vendor should provide them. So maybe you can submit those without any issue.

Regards,
Arend


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