From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Greg KH Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 21:13:38 +0000 Subject: Re: a3load.hex Message-Id: <20051014211338.GA7101@kroah.com> List-Id: References: <20051014134617.42227.qmail@web30703.mail.mud.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20051014134617.42227.qmail@web30703.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 06:46:16AM -0700, william baroniunas wrote: > Hi. > > I am new to this list, so I'm hoping that I can find > someone to help me with a question regarding the > a3load.hex source file found in the hotplug > package(s). > > In this file, the Cypress copyright prohibits > distribution of the file unless it is distributed with > a Cypress USB product. It is not freely distributable. > > How are folks in the Linux community handling this > issue? No distro that I know of, distributes this file. Do you know of any? We got approval from Cypress to add it to the package, as the file really isn't useful at all without a Cypress processor to run on. And the copyright says: # Cypress Semiconductor Corporation hereby grants a copyright # license to use or redistribute this firmware image, in text or # binary form as required, only in conjunction with devices # using a Cypress USB microcontroller. Every copy in any form # of the firmware shall include Cypress copyright legends. So it is ok to bundle it, right? But I think you need to take it up with the individual distros that are distributing the file, if you still object. > Are there hotplug distributions that have > extracted this file, as well as the ezusb functions? I don't know, have you checked? > Or has everyone simply ignored the copyright? To keep > open source as real open source, it should ONLY > include files that apply to a GPL-like license. The license must be the same for files that are linked together. This file isn't linked into any other one, right? So it should be fine. > Anything short of that could spawn litigation issues > in the future. Litigation from whom? Cypress who gave us the file to redistribute? I don't think so :) thanks, greg k-h ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl _______________________________________________ Linux-hotplug-devel mailing list http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net Linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-hotplug-devel