legal problem with cs89x0 driver

legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Robert Millan]

Hi,

What do we do about the cs89x0 driver?  Remove it?

  https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?20720

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call… if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)

Re: legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Pavel Roskin]

On Mon, 2008-02-04 at 23:52 +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> What do we do about the cs89x0 driver?  Remove it?
> 
>   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?20720

I suggest that we ask Russell Nelson nicely to change the license to GPL
v2.  If he doesn't answer, or if the answer is anything less than an
unequivocal "yes", the driver should be removed and another version of
GNU GRUB released.

It's not like it's a clear case of a driver we cannot distribute.  A
good and well-paid lawyer could likely find several loopholes allowing
us to distribute the driver.  It could be argued that the code is
distributed with the Etherboot package, which is a part of GNU GRUB.  Or
that GPL supersedes the comments in the file.  Or that the original file
was a Linux driver under GPL, and Russell Nelson did not have exclusive
copyright to relicense it (the Linux driver mentions Donald Becker as
well).

However, I really doubt it's worth the trouble.  Either Russell Nelson
agrees to GPL with no conditions, or the driver is thrown out.  If there
are users who depend on it, it's their problem.  Let them care about
licenses, not us.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin

RE: legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello!
This is going to be a real headache.
All of his original packet drivers were released under the GPL; the zip
files contained on his site actually contain the original text of the GPL
there. The problem for the cs89x0 was that it was written for an actual
customer. 

Ideally the customer should have gone along with releasing it that way.
However I suspect that the customer if that name still exists may not want
to be released that way. We do need to contact Mr. Nelson and ask him.

Side issue: Robert what mail client are you using this week? It's causing
the messages to arrive here as UTF-8.
--
Gregg C Levine hansolofalcon@worldnet.att.net
"The Force will be with you always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
  


> -----Original Message-----
> From: grub-devel-bounces+hansolofalcon=worldnet.att.net@gnu.org
[mailto:grub-devel-
> bounces+hansolofalcon=worldnet.att.net@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Pavel Roskin
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:26 PM
> To: The development of GRUB 2
> Subject: Re: legal problem with cs89x0 driver
> 
> On Mon, 2008-02-04 at 23:52 +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > What do we do about the cs89x0 driver?  Remove it?
> >
> >   https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?20720
> 
> I suggest that we ask Russell Nelson nicely to change the license to GPL
> v2.  If he doesn't answer, or if the answer is anything less than an
> unequivocal "yes", the driver should be removed and another version of
> GNU GRUB released.
> 
> It's not like it's a clear case of a driver we cannot distribute.  A
> good and well-paid lawyer could likely find several loopholes allowing
> us to distribute the driver.  It could be argued that the code is
> distributed with the Etherboot package, which is a part of GNU GRUB.  Or
> that GPL supersedes the comments in the file.  Or that the original file
> was a Linux driver under GPL, and Russell Nelson did not have exclusive
> copyright to relicense it (the Linux driver mentions Donald Becker as
> well).
> 
> However, I really doubt it's worth the trouble.  Either Russell Nelson
> agrees to GPL with no conditions, or the driver is thrown out.  If there
> are users who depend on it, it's their problem.  Let them care about
> licenses, not us.
> 
> --
> Regards,
> Pavel Roskin
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel

Re: legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Robert Millan]

On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 05:30:22PM -0500, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> Side issue: Robert what mail client are you using this week? It's causing
> the messages to arrive here as UTF-8.

Same as last.  But there's utf-8 in my signature now ;-)

-- 
Robert Millan

<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call… if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)

RE: legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Gregg C Levine]

Hello!
Huh?
Robert the whole message was seen in UTF-8, not just the signature. So what
were you using last week, and even all month?

--
Gregg C Levine hansolofalcon@worldnet.att.net
"The Force will be with you always." Obi-Wan Kenobi
  


> -----Original Message-----
> From: grub-devel-bounces+hansolofalcon=worldnet.att.net@gnu.org
[mailto:grub-devel-
> bounces+hansolofalcon=worldnet.att.net@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Robert Millan
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 7:14 PM
> To: The development of GRUB 2
> Subject: Re: legal problem with cs89x0 driver
> 
> On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 05:30:22PM -0500, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> > Side issue: Robert what mail client are you using this week? It's
causing
> > the messages to arrive here as UTF-8.
> 
> Same as last.  But there's utf-8 in my signature now ;-)
> 
> --
> Robert Millan
> 
> <GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
> <DRM> What use is a phone callb& if you are unable to speak?
> (as seen on /.)
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel

Re: legal problem with cs89x0 driver

[Jordi Mallach]

Hi,

On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 07:36:34PM -0500, Gregg C Levine wrote:
> Huh?
> Robert the whole message was seen in UTF-8, not just the signature. So what
> were you using last week, and even all month?

Your answer is in his headers. Mutt will encode the message depending on
its contents. If Robert's signature now includes "…" or "⁉", the full
message gets recoded in UTF-8.

Mixing the encodings of the message and the signature would be really
bad news.

Here goes another UTF-8 message. :)

Jordi
-- 
Jordi Mallach Pérez  --  Debian developer     http://www.debian.org/
jordi@sindominio.net     jordi@debian.org     http://www.sindominio.net/
GnuPG public key information available at http://oskuro.net/