kernel-libre (hopefully 100% Free) for Fedora 8 and rawhide

[David Woodhouse]

On Sun, 2008-03-23 at 05:49 -0400, Chris Snook wrote:
> Not everyone agrees with your interpretation of the GPL, and plenty of
> people are happy to distribute binary blobs. 

Just for the record -- this is the licence you speak of 'interpreting':

	These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
	identifiable sections of that work are NOT DERIVED from the
 	Program, and can be reasonably considered INDEPENDENT AND
	SEPARATE WORKS in themselves, then this License, and its terms,
	do not apply to those sections WHEN YOU DISTRIBUTE THEM AS
	SEPARATE WORKS.

	But when you distribute the SAME SECTIONS AS PART OF A WHOLE
	which is a work based on the Program, the DISTRIBUTION OF THE
	WHOLE MUST BE ON THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, whose permissions
	for other licensees extend to the ENTIRE WHOLE, and thus to
	EACH AND EVERY PART REGARDLESS OF WHO WROTE IT. 

	Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or
	contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the
	intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of
	derivative OR COLLECTIVE WORKS based on the Program. 

Personally, I can't find even a _wilful_ misinterpretation which permits
non-GPL'd firmware blobs to be included in the kernel itself, without
being completely crazy about it. But maybe that's just me.

I certainly support Alexandre's efforts to ship them as separate works,
but only if it's done coherently with firmware-loader support rather
than just by shipping a separate, crippled, kernel.

-- 
dwmw2