Return-path: Received: from mail-qy0-f181.google.com ([209.85.216.181]:59766 "EHLO mail-qy0-f181.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751598Ab1BRVZS convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:25:18 -0500 Received: by qyk12 with SMTP id 12so4080154qyk.19 for ; Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:25:17 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1287674517.2383.7.camel@dcbw.foobar.com> References: <4CBF640C.4080405@broadcom.com> <1287674517.2383.7.camel@dcbw.foobar.com> Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:24:00 +0100 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Request for free-distributable Broadcom's (G|LP)-PHY firmware From: =?UTF-8?B?UmFmYcWCIE1pxYJlY2tp?= To: Dan Williams Cc: Henry Ptasinski , Brett Rudley , Nohee Ko , Greg Kroah-Hartman , "linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org" , b43-dev Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: W dniu 21 października 2010 17:21 użytkownik Dan Williams napisał: > On Thu, 2010-10-21 at 00:11 +0200, Rafał Miłecki wrote: >> W dniu 20 października 2010 23:50 użytkownik Henry Ptasinski >> napisał: >> > Sorry for the delay in responding.  We are exploring what is possible but >> > for the moment the answer is no. At present our focus is on providing the >> > best open source solution we can for 4313, 43224, 43225, 4329 and future >> > chips sets. >> >> Thanks for answer. >> >> Please, can you make totally sure person responsible for this gets it >> totally right? I believe it's very important. >> >> The easiest step for you, which we still would appreciate is really >> trivial one. It's *not* about writing any code, *not* about releasing >> anything new. It's just about releasing in under friendly license. >> This firmware is already available, we have access to it, we use it. >> The problem is that distributions can not ship it. >> >> If you let me use simplification: all we need as first nice step is >> Broadcom to say: "You can use it". > > That's not enough to allow Fedora to ship it.  We'd need a clear license > from Broadcom (ex the existing Intel or Marvell firmware licenses) > before Fedora could feel comfortable about shipping it legally in all > jurisdictions. > > http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git;a=blob;f=LICENCE.mwl8k;h=3224e1bbfba8ccd1d980f57eb88378f20bb2d146;hb=HEAD > http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git;a=blob;f=LICENCE.libertas;h=1fd8766c26a170b50605455ae6f54b607baa12cf;hb=HEAD > > There's an existing Broadcom license in linux-firmware.git, and it *may* > be OK, but it's really, really long and given that other major companies > adopted the "shorter is better" approach, it's hard to believe that all > the existing Broadcom license text is actually needed. Few months later, is there any progress? Can we expect: 1) Easier licensing of currently provided firmware (see Fedore case) 2) Firmware for LP-PHY devices ? -- Rafał