Re: Easy Fedora 2

[Rahul Sundaram <sundaram fedoraproject org>]

Chris Adams wrote:
> Is there any possibility of shipping the things that are legal and do
> work across platforms: firmware?  For example, I have an Intel wireless
> card that uses the ipw2200 driver and firmware.  I know there was
> discussion from (IIRC) OpenBSD with various vendors about the licenses
> for firmware distribution; did any of that go anywhere?

Yes, Some licensing changes are expected. Red Hat is still working with 
Intel on this last I heard.

> What is the Fedora Project's stand on firmware distribution?

The current stand is documented in 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#BinaryFirmware. In 
short we require unrestricted redistribution rights on the minimum. 
There is also http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FreeSoftwareAnalysis.

> Could there at least be a pointer included somewhere for where to get
> firmware? 

Sure but even better see 
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=217350. In some 
cases, the licenses are unclear and need to go through a formal legal 
review too as with other packages.

 Unlike some other additional software, it is legal to
> distribute the Intel firmware for example (at least the way I read the
> license).  Maybe there could be a "non-free" that includes software that
> is legal but under more restrictive licenses (there aren't many things
> that fall in that category).

We arent planning to introduce any non-free repositories within the 
distribution. If they are legal but non-free repositories out there we 
might consider pointing to them with appropriate disclaimers however.

Rahul