Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Thu Jun 19 18:41:30 UTC 2008


jeff wrote:
> 
>>>
>>> I personally downloaded this file believing that I was getting a free 
>>> GPL driver. Broadcom says so in the patch itself, in the included 
>>> LICENSE file, and their website when you click to download it. Red 
>>> Hat is shipping it as GPLv2. So either they have to provide the 
>>> source (if they have it), stop shipping it, or *at least* stop saying 
>>> they are shipping a GPLv2 kernel if they are unwilling/unable to 
>>> provide the source.
>>
>> You missed the discussion where it was pointed out that some firmware
>> is written in hex directly, as there is no compiler. Good luck with
>> demanding the source to that dude...
> 
> 
> 
> 
>   ---->   "Derived from proprietary unpublished source code"  <----
> 
> 
> 
> linux-2.6.25/drivers/net/tg3.c:
> 
> /*
>  * tg3.c: Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver.
>  *
>  * Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 David S. Miller (davem at redhat.com)
>  * Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003 Jeff Garzik (jgarzik at pobox.com)
>  * Copyright (C) 2004 Sun Microsystems Inc.
>  * Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Broadcom Corporation.
>  *
>  * Firmware is:
>  *      Derived from proprietary unpublished source code,
>  *      Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation.
>  *
>  *      Permission is hereby granted for the distribution of this firmware
>  *      data in hexadecimal or equivalent format, provided this copyright
>  *      notice is accompanying it.
>  */
> 
> 
> 
> tg3.c is the example I have been using all along.

And note the difference between this and the earlier one you previously 
posted that (probably mistakenly) said it was GPL'd.

> Of course actually getting Red Hat or Broadcom to turn it over wouldn't 
> be easy.

That's probably not one of the choices.  Demanding that distribution be 
stopped of everything containing the one claiming to be GPL might be, if 
that's what you want, but only the copyright holder could enforce that 
demand.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com




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