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Greg KH wrote: |
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> The fact that some people claim that the firmware blobs somehow violate |
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> the GPLv2 license of the kernel is a claim, not a fact, so please do not |
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> state it as such. |
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|
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Hi Greg, |
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|
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Thanks for your reply. |
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I think you misunderstood my point though. I wasn't saying that the |
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firmware violates the GPL, I have no idea whether it does or not. I was |
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saying that some of the firmware is non-free software, and therefore the |
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license should include more than just GPL-2. This especially effects |
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people using ACCEPT_LICENSE to maintain a free system. |
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|
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> Also note that the majority of these firmware blobs are now removed |
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> from the kernel, and are in a separate patckage, so this might be |
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> totally irrelevant at this point in time. |
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|
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This may be true, but the packages in the main tree still contain |
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non-free firmware. If this is fixed in a later release, then GPL-2 would |
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be fine for those. |
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|
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> So please don't state that the Linux kernel is not properly listed as |
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> the GPLv2, because it is. |
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|
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In linux-2.6.31 for example, here are some excerpts from |
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firmware/WHENCE: |
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Regarding the keyspan USB driver: |
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This firmware may not be modified and may only be used with |
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Keyspan hardware. |
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|
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and the emi26 driver: |
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This firmware may not be modified and may only be used with the |
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Emagic EMI 2|6 Audio Interface. |
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|
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I'm not sure if this git repo is part of a separate package or not, but |
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it seems the same terms are present: |
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http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git;a=blob;f=WHENCE;h=83d245bee1ec44cbd5c0e1a53a3989c57f675c91;hb=f20b0674534a444ae74239843cac19f72c64912b |
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|
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Which is why I think the license should be amended. If I'm mistaken, |
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please do correct me, but based on my above notes, I believe it should |
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be updated. |
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|
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Thanks, |
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Vincent. |