Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

jeff moe at blagblagblag.org
Mon Jun 16 07:13:36 UTC 2008


Les Mikesell wrote:
> jeff wrote:
>> Les Mikesell wrote:
>>> jeff wrote:
>>> That would be a reasonable change.  How is it done in drivers where 
>>> the firmware has always been known to be non-GPL but 
>>> redistributable?   tg3 might be a special case due to its copyright 
>>> change.
>>
>> The firmware hasn't always been known to be non-GPL. It was 
>> distributed for years under the GPL, so it *is* GPL, but they are 
>> violating the GPL by not shipping the source code.
>>
>> Have you even looked at tg3.c or it's history?
>>
> 
> Just a quick google to find the discussion here:
> http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing with its note that the 
> corrected license was committed here:
> http://kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=49cabf49abd7676d026a61baabf5aae9337a82be;hp=9beb1d587f690d5b2f9087f8f10c0ff9f6b66886 

They changed the kernel source then, but that doesn't mean they aren't under 
obligations of the GPL since they distributed it for *years* under the GPL.

-Jeff




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