Re: [GIT PULL] linux-firmware: cx23885: update to Version 2.06.139

From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab
Date: Tue Dec 04 2012 - 11:35:59 EST


Em 04-12-2012 03:07, Ben Hutchings escreveu:
On Mon, 2012-12-03 at 11:13 -0700, Tim Gardner wrote:
Ben - what is your policy on extracting firmware from Windows drivers?

I suppose the policy should be that the driver's licence must allow
extracting and then distributing the result. Which I wouldn't expect
ever to be the case, in practice.

Your commit message refers to the Hauppuage driver package at
<http://steventoth.net/linux/hvr1800/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0_1_25_25271_WHQL.zip>. I didn't find any licence text, other than 'All rights reserved', in either that or the currently distributed version of the same driver <http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/drivers/HVR-12x0-14x0-17x0-33x0-44x0_1_48_29272_SIGNED.zip>.

It seems like it ought to be OK, and they _are_ the same files that are
covered under the license in WHENCE.

I'm not sure how you can say they are the same files, as you're
proposing to change the contents. The copyright on the current files
belongs to the chipset vendor, Conexant, and Hauppuage *presumably* used
firmware supplied by Conexant, but either of them might have chosen a
different licence for the versions in this driver package.

We shouldn't be replacing the firmwares that Conexant explicitly gave us
the rights to re-distribute by something else extracted from the
Windows drivers without redistribution rights.

Also, AFAIKT, with regards to the firmwares used on ivtv, there is a
license variant that Hauppauge gave to some distros in the past, after
getting Conexant's agreement for that. The terms used there explicitly
forbids redistribution.

So, if any of the existing firmware doesn't work, we should ask
Conexant (c/c) to send us a firmware that works, under the same terms
they gave us in the past, e. g. with redistribution rights.

Regards,
Mauro

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