Yeah, I sent an email to [email protected] with this text:
"On your
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsview.aspx?langid=1&pnid=13&pfid=5&level=5&conn=4&downtypeid=3&getdown=false#2
page you provide firmware for RTL8111 for UNIX (Linux) that are licensed
under the GPL. This inclusion of non human readable binary code also affects
earlier versions of your code like version 8.037 used by the r8168-dkms
package in Ubuntu 14.04.
When looking at the source code for r8168-8.040.00.tar.bz2, the r8168_n.c
file in /src/ contains binary code that is not readable and does not have
appropriate documentation on the license of such code.
According to these sources, the firmware is not in full compliance with the
GPL and is considered non-free:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=787634
https://devel.trisquel.info/trisquel/ubuntu-purge/merge_requests/17
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/my-experiences-switching-powerline-ethernet-and-getting-around-non-free-r8169-firmware
Please consider a revision to your drivers to provide source code or better
documentation regarding the source of the binary code so it is in the full
spirit of the GPL and doesn't get excluded from popular GNU/Linux
distributions.
Thank you"
