From: "Downing, Thomas" <Thomas.Downing@ipc.com>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
Simon Kelley <simon@thekelleys.org.uk>
Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: Binary firmware in the kernel - licensing issues.
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 08:54:33 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <170EBA504C3AD511A3FE00508BB89A9202085B63@exnanycmbx4.ipc.com> (raw)
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Cox [mailto:alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk]
>
> So you can't distribute it at all unless there is other paperwork
> involved.
>
>> Given the current SCO-IBM situation I don't want to be responsible for
>> introducing any legally questionable IP into the kernel tree.
>>
>> This situation must have come up before, how was it solved then?
>
> The easiest approach is to do the firmware load from userspace - which
> also keeps the driver size down and makes updating the firmware images
> easier for end users.
>
> (Debian as policy will rip the firmware out anyway regardless of what
> Linus does btw)
>
> The hotplug interface can be used to handle this.
I am writing a USB driver for a well-known vendor's USB device which
requires firmware download. The vendor is considering allowing me
to publish the driver under GPL. They will _not_ allow me to include
the binary firmware under any conditions.
So I will be loading the firmware from userspace - but the user must
obtain the firmware as a part of a larger application package.
(Complete crap IMO, but what can I do...)
PS: what would be the preferred place to load the firmware
from, if no option giving the firmware pathname is passed to the
module at load time?
next reply other threads:[~2003-05-06 12:42 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 32+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2003-05-06 12:54 Downing, Thomas [this message]
2003-05-06 12:46 ` Binary firmware in the kernel - licensing issues Alan Cox
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2003-05-08 23:36 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-08 16:51 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-08 16:35 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-08 18:26 ` root
2003-05-08 22:19 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-08 15:59 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-08 16:09 ` Jörn Engel
2003-05-08 13:20 Downing, Thomas
2003-05-07 17:14 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-07 11:59 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-07 14:08 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-06 15:04 Adam J. Richter
2003-05-06 11:38 Simon Kelley
2003-05-06 11:15 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-06 13:28 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-06 12:44 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-06 13:42 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-06 12:19 ` Matti Aarnio
2003-05-06 15:16 ` J. Bruce Fields
2003-05-06 15:42 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-06 15:21 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-07 6:52 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-07 9:07 ` Filip Van Raemdonck
2003-05-07 9:54 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-08 8:01 ` Filip Van Raemdonck
2003-05-08 9:44 ` Simon Kelley
2003-05-08 10:56 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-06 15:48 ` Richard B. Johnson
2003-05-06 15:19 ` Alan Cox
2003-05-08 10:20 ` Jörn Engel
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