Re: non-free firmware in kernel modules, aggregation and unclear copyright notice.

Horst von Brand
2005-04-05T17:50:15Z

Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr> said:
> On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 08:16:48AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > Humberto Massa wrote:
> > >But, the question made here was a subtler one and you are all biting
> > >around the bush: there *are* some misrepresentations of licenses to the
> > >firmware blobs in the kernel (-- ok, *if* you consider that hex dumps
> > >are not source code). What Sven asked was: "Hey, can I state explicitly
> > >the distribution state in the source files, by means of adding some
> > >comments?".
> >
> > >I think even a clarification "this firmware hexdump is considered to be
> > >the source code, and it's GPL'd" would do, but I must put my asbestos
> > >suit everytime I say it. :-)
> >
> > We do not add comments to the kernel source code which simply state the
> > obvious.
>
> The only thing here is that it has to be obvious not only to you, but to the
> judge too :)
>
> In this case, it is not comments, but proper copyright attribution, which was
> added in the tg3.c case since the first checkin :
>
> /*
> * tg3.c: Broadcom Tigon3 ethernet driver.
> *
> * Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 David S. Miller (davem@redhat.com)
> * Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003 Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
> * Copyright (C) 2004 Sun Microsystems Inc.
> *
> * Firmware is:
> * Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation.
> */
>
> The firmware part was not present in the original checkin you did in 2002.
> Adding something about the licencing status of it would be enough.
>
> Or even adding some comment in the toplevel COPYING file saying that firmware
> blobs come under their own licence or something such, and then listing all the
> firmware blobs and their licencing condition in a separate toplevel file would
> be enough.
>
> Friendly,
>
> Sven Luther
>
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