[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

Fri Mar 25 09:28:20 CET 2011

+----- "Maarten Vanraes" <maarten.vanraes at gmail.com> wrote:
+
+> Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 11:18:03 schreef Olivier Blin:
+> > Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> writes:
+> > >>> It can't be "free" and have "non-free" firmware... previously
+> the
+> > >>> firmware only were on the Live CD's. I am not sure anything has
+> been
+> > >>> changed in that regard (i.e. I didn't see the matter get
+> discussed
+> > >>> yet).
+> > >> 
+> > >> They were also on the PowerPack images, and they are installed
+> > >> automatically over a network install
+> > > 
+> > > But to be installed via network you have to have a network
+> connection
+> > > first, n'est-ce pas?
+> > > That's what this thread is about.
+> > 
+> > It is now also about "in which media should we include non-free
+> > packages?" :)
+> 
+> no, about if they are really non-free... stuff released as BSD is free
+> in my 
+> book. if they don't comply, they could be sued for all i care, but
+> it's still 
+> free.
+
+Well, even if they say the source code is BSD, if:
+1)The source is not provided (under a free license)
+2)The source can't be compiled with a free toolchain
+then it is non-free, and most likely the license is wrong, and they have chosen to relicense from BSD to a proprietary licence (which BSD of course allows).
+
+Compare e.g. Darwin and Mac OS X. Since Mac OS X is has some originally BSD source code, must Apple provide me with complete Mac OS X source code? If they don't, do I have grounds to sue? No. Is it Free? Most definitely not.
+
+Regards,
+Buchan
+
+