Re: Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

[jeff <moe blagblagblag org>]

Les Mikesell wrote:
> jeff wrote:
> > To me it appears quite clear that Broadcom is distributing a GPL'd 
> > file, and thus has to turn over the source code.
> >
> > Now you may argue this exempts them from this (but it probably still 
> > doesn't):
> >
> >   * 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  *      Derived from proprietary unpublished source code,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.
> >
> >
> >
> > But what about in versions distributed for years where that was not 
> > included?  That text above is recent addition. To my surprise when I went
> > to download the driver on their page I found I had an old 
> > ~/devel/broadcom directory with a file linux-7.3.5.zip containing 
> > files timestamped from 2004 (the above copyright was added in 2005).
> >
> > Here, the bcm5700-7.3.5-1.src.rpm file was tagged "GPL".
>
>
> I'd take that to mean that they didn't understand the GPL when they 
> originally used it

Pffft. "Oh, sorry, we didn't know what the license meant, we're just a billion 
dollar company with 100 lawyers". That doesn't mean they can suddenly un-GPL 
something.

> and corrected the situation by removing it.  So what 
> you have is a non-gpl'd binary file with permission to redistribute - 
> which is far from unique.

And you're missing the other point: THEY ARE STILL DOING IT TODAY, as I 
mentioned earlier. Go to their website, it says it's GPL.

As a side note, it was added by RedHat to the main kernel and RedHat is still 
shipping it under the GPL too.

-Jeff