Re: [RFC] qtn: add FullMAC firmware for Quantenna QSR10G wifi device

[Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>]

> > With the carl9170 driver, the GPL firmware was required to be put
> > as buildable source code into the linux-firmware tree.

> An SDK that can be used to build QSR10G firmware is a ~240MB file in
> compressed archive format, it includes GPL code as well as
> proprietary components.
> Our legal team included following clause in licence file coming with
> firmware:
> Information regarding the Open Source Components included with the
> Software is available upon request to oslegal@quantenna.com
> So the idea is that GPL components used in firmware can be provided
> on request.

I understand, and I understand that you/they are actually providing it
when asked.

However, the carl9170 project has its (entirely GPL) source tree out in
the open, making it much *easier* and that was *still* thought to not
be sufficient; I don't recall the discussions but I'm guessing that's
because of something like redistributors having to make sure source is
available, and guaranteeing that for a long time, etc.

johannes