I'm not sure if this helps but the ubuntu guys have already included this firmware in their distribution. Linuxtv.org offer a lot of information. http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Afatech_AF9015 Apparently Afatech want to release a better driver rather than have poor drivers merged into the kernel but its firmware blobs for now...
Odd, I find that it doesn't work if you enable the linux KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) module. Didn't seem to matter which version of the firmware used though but I guess thats another matter.
