[Mageia-dev] Clarification on firmware licenses

Sat Jan 15 20:34:18 CET 2011

Anssi Hannula skrev 15.1.2011 21:00:
+> Hi all!
+>
+> Sorry for bringing this stuff up again, but it seems there is still some
+> confusion regarding firmware licenses and to which repository put the
+> various firmware packages.
+>
+> Clear cases:
+> - open-source firmware with source code goes to core
+> - firmware which doesn't allow modifications or has other similar
+>    restrictions goes to non-free
+>
+> However, what to do with firmware that is licensed under a free license
+> (e.g. BSD/GPL) that doesn't have source code?
+> There are quite a few of those (see e.g. [1]).
+>
+> A quick look at other distros shows the following:
+>
+> Debian:
+>   - All firmware without source code goes to non-free.
+
+
+This is exactly how I have planned to clean up the firmware,
+but I have not had the time yet...
+
+So kernel-firmware (wich belongs in core) and kernel-firmware-extra 
+(wich belongs in nonfree) will have to be modified...
+
+Anything in kernel-firmware without proper license & source will be 
+moved to kernel-firmware-extra.
+
+Anything in kernel-firmware-extra with open-source firmware and source 
+will be moved to kernel-firmware.
+
+The same goes for every other firmware in the distro.
+
+--
+Thomas
+