On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 5:58 AM, Pavel Roskin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 2008-08-25 at 11:08 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote: > >> The license this driver is under is not F/OSS, but it's not as >> restrictive as the license on the Windows driver. > > The instructions at http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 > don't refer to any Windows drivers. They already refer to distributable > files. > >> It explicitly allows >> redistribution, in unmodified form. So it wouldn't be okay to extract >> the firmware from this driver and just package that, but distros *could* >> package the entire driver (without ever actually using it) and then >> automatically extract the firmware from it when setting up b43. This >> would finally solve the Firmware Minefield issue caused by distros not >> being able to ship firmware for b43 in any way. > > That's a question to distros. I think they have good reasons not to > ship non-free software with restrictive licenses. > > -- > Regards, > Pavel Roskin > _______________________________________________ > Bcm43xx-dev mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev >
On a related note, I think we should make b43 load wl_apsta.o/wl_apsta_mimo.o directly, and cut out the firmware in the memory, as the cut-out firmware files are illegal to distribute, meaning that a distro can't include a ready-to-use b43 driver, even if they consider shipping non-free (but distributable) components OK. This prevents distros from enabling online installation through a Broadcom wireless card, as the boot CD can't include the necessary firmware. -- Vista: [V]iruses, [I]ntruders, [S]pyware, [T]rojans and [A]dware. :-) _______________________________________________ Bcm43xx-dev mailing list [email protected] https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/bcm43xx-dev
