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 {{{
 I've talked w/ ["QLogic"]'s lawyers; their main concern with changing the
 firmware license is having to re-qualify with ["OEMs"]. I suggested
 dual-licensing, which they're ok with. As of June 15, they were working on
 the language of the new license. -dil
}}}

Drivers we are currently '''REMOVING'''

acenic (drivers/net):

 * Copyright 1998-2002 by Jes Sorensen, <jes@trained-monkey.org>.
 ''''' Generated by genfw.c '''''
 ACENIC DRIVER
 P:      Jes Sorensen
 M:      jes@trained-monkey.org
 L:      linux-acenic@sunsite.dk
 S:      Maintained

 according to freebsd's if_ti.c:
 * Alteon Networks Tigon PCI gigabit ethernet driver for ["FreeBSD"].
 * Manuals, sample driver and firmware source kits are available
 * from http://www.alteon.com/support/openkits.
 * Written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>
 * The firmware for the Tigon 1 and 2 ["NICs"] is compiled directly into
 * this driver by #including it as a C header file. This bloats the
 * driver somewhat, but it's the easiest method considering that the
 * driver code and firmware code need to be kept in sync. The source
 * for the firmware is not provided with the ["FreeBSD"] distribution since
 * compiling it requires a GNU toolchain targeted for mips-sgi-irix5.3.

 wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu - bounced
 wpaul@["FreeBSD"].org - awaiting response (apr 5)
 william.paul@windriver.com - awaiting response (apr 5)

 acenic firmware source is here:
 http://alteon.shareable.org/
 Quoth the page: "Look at the source files yourself to understand any
 licensing restrictions on their use.  Alteon's license may be summarised
 like this: you may share and develop the firmware, but it is only for use
 with Alteon NIC products."

 More useful acenic info:
 http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00078.html
 acenic firmware 'license': http://web.archive.org/web/20000711071330/sanjose.alteon.com/license-agree.shtml
 Definitely not DFSG-free, but it appears distributable at least.. comments?
 -dil

 Jes Sorensen, the arcenic driver author, wrote :
 As I stated, I got it from Alteon with a written permission to
 distribute it as part of the GPL driver.
 --
 svenl
  •  What is the status of this?  Does Jes have written permission to distribute
     the '''source''' as GPL?  The source is online, but incorrectly licensed.  If
     possible, I'd like to get a valid license on that, so we can possibly include
     this driver in main.  -dil

dabusb (drivers/usb/media):

 *      Copyright (C) 1999  Deti Fliegl (deti@fliegl.de)
 deti@fliegl.de - awaiting response (apr 4, apr 13)   -dil

dgrs (drivers/net):

 *      Author: Rick Richardson, rick@remotepoint.com
 *      Derived from the ["SVR4"].2 (UnixWare) driver for the same card.
 *      Copyright 1995-1996 Digi International Inc.
 *      For information on purchasing a RightSwitch SE-4 or SE-6
 *      board, please contact Digi's sales department at 1-612-912-3444
 *      or 1-800-DIGIBRD.  Outside the U.S., please check our Web page
 *      at http://www.dgii.com for sales offices worldwide.
 DIGI RIGHTSWITCH NETWORK DRIVER
 P:      Rick Richardson
 L:      linux-net@vger.kernel.org
 W:      http://www.digi.com
 S:      Orphaned

 rick@remotepoint.com - bounced
 rickr@mn.rr.com - response received (apr 5); firmware license is proprietary.
 awaiting specific license redistribution rights. 
 digi.com - attempted to contact their support (the web form leaves a lot
 to be desired) (apr 13) - awaiting a response 
 digi.com - repinged (may 11).  response received; case #1197247.  From the email:

 I apologize for the delay.  We have been trying to track down
 information about this firmware image.  Apparently, the RightSwitch
 product has been obsolete for several years (approximately 8+ years).  

 The Manager of the firmware Engineering Department has been made aware
 and is currently researching this. 

emi62 (drivers/usb/misc):

 * Copyright (C) 2002
 *      Tapio Laxstr\uffffm (tapio.laxstrom@iptime.fi)
 * This file is generated from three different files, provided by Emagic.
  •  In 2.4, emi62_fw.h contained the following (which was apparently stripped
     out before 2.6, for some reason?):
     * This firmware is for the Emagic EMI 2||6 Audio Interface
     *
     * The firmware contained herein is Copyright (c) 1999-2002 Emagic
     * as an unpublished work. This notice does not imply unrestricted
     * or public access to this firmware which is a trade secret of Emagic,
     * and which may not be reproduced, used, sold or transferred to
     * any third party without Emagic's written consent. All Rights Reserved.
     *
     * This firmware may not be modified and may only be used with the
     * Emagic EMI 2||6 Audio Interface. Distribution and/or Modification of
     * any driver which includes this firmware, in whole or in part,
     * requires the inclusion of this statement.
     So, undistributable.  asuffield pointed out this:
     http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2002/jul/01emagic.html

 copyright@apple.com - awaiting response (apr 13)  -dil

keyspan (drivers/usb/serial):

  (C) Copyright (C) 2000-2001   Hugh Blemings <hugh@blemings.org>
  (C) Copyright (C) 2002        Greg Kroah-Hartman <greg@kroah.com>
  See http://misc.nu/hugh/keyspan.html for more information.

        The firmware contained herein as keyspan_*.h is

                Copyright (C) 1999-2001
                Keyspan, A division of InnoSys Incorporated ("Keyspan")

        as an unpublished work. This notice does not imply unrestricted or
        public access to the source code from which this firmware image is
        derived.  Except as noted below this firmware image may not be
        reproduced, used, sold or transferred to any third party without
        Keyspan's prior written consent.  All Rights Reserved.

        Permission is hereby granted for the distribution of this firmware
        image as part of a Linux or other Open Source operating system kernel
        in text or binary form as required.

        This firmware may not be modified and may only be used with
        Keyspan hardware.  Distribution and/or Modification of the
        keyspan.c driver which includes this firmware, in whole or in
        part, requires the inclusion of this statement."

 This looks good; the only potentially hairy bit is the part about being
 distributed as part of a Linux or other Free OS kernel.  Is shipping it as a
 separate driver, with other Linux drivers (ie, shipping a part of an OS
 kernel) permitted?  -dil

qla2xxx (drivers/scsi):

 * Copyright (C) 2003 Christoph Hellwig.
 * Copyright (C) 2003-2004 ["QLogic"] Corporation
 * (www.qlogic.com)
 QLOGIC ["QLA2XXX"] FC-SCSI DRIVER
 P:      Andrew Vasquez
 M:      andrew.vasquez@qlogic.com 
 L:      linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
 S:      Supported

 freebsd has firmware for qla separated out and marked under BSD license; is
 this valid?  can we just say the firmware blobs are BSD licensed?
 http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/ispfw/      -dil

 andrew.vasquez@qlogic.com - awaiting response (may 11)
 support@qlogic.com - response received (may 11) -dil
 Bits quoted from the response from David Wagner, and my response to him:
 > Can you tell me what the issue is as far as Debian is concerned? Do

 The GPL specifies that when binaries are distributed, source must be
 made available by some means.  Currently, if someone were to ask us
 (Debian) for the source to the firmware image, we would be unable to
 provide it.  That would mean we (Debian) are in violation of the
 license.  It is irrelevant what device the firmware code actually
 executes on.  Quoting the ["GPLv2"], "The source code for a work means the
 preferred form of the work for making modifications to it."  Unless
 ["QLogic"] is creating the binary image with a hex editor, I don't think it
 could be argued that the firmware image itself is the source code.
 >  you have suggestions as to the exact license agreement wording that
 > you would recommend?
 > 

 Any Free license that's compatible with the GPL would be just fine.  I
 have been recommending the BSD license to hardware vendors.  For
 example:
 ...

 David then responded, saying he'd forward my input to his boss.
  •  I've talked w/ ["QLogic"]'s lawyers; their main concern with changing the
     firmware license is having to re-qualify with ["OEMs"].  I suggested
     dual-licensing, which they're ok with.  As of June 15, they were working on
     the language of the new license.  -dil

smctr (drivers/net/tokenring):

 * The firmware this driver downloads into the tokenring card is a
 * separate program and is not GPL'd source code, even though the Linux
 * side driver and the routine that loads this data into the card are.
 *
 * This firmware is licensed to you strictly for use in conjunction
 * with the use of SMC TokenRing adapters. There is no waranty
 * expressed or implied about its fitness for any purpose.
 *  - This is an 8K binary image. (MCT.BIN v6.3C1 03/01/95)
 *  - Jay Schulist <jschlst@samba.org>

 Is this licensing ok? I'm going to guess not, since redistribution is not
 explicitly permitted.. 
  •  jschlst@samba.org - awaiting response (apr 13)
     Jay Schulist <jschlst@turbolinux.com> - bounced
     Jay Schulist (jschlst@spacs.k12.wi.us) - awaiting response (apr 14)
     Jay Schulist (jschlst@coredcs.com) - bounced
     Jay Schulist <jschlst@linux-sna.org> - bounced -dil

tg3 (drivers/net):

 * Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 David S. Miller (davem@redhat.com)
 * Copyright (C) 2001 Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
 * Copyright (C) 2004 Sun Microsystems Inc.
 * Firmware is:
 *      Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation.
  •  Before contacting broadcom, i went to the driver download web page :

   http://www.broadcom.com/drivers/driver-sla.php?driver=570x-Linux
  •  which says :

   The Broadcom Linux Ethernet drivers are licensed under the GNU GPL.
   The full text of the license is available in the driver archive.
    
 downloading the driver now, but don't know what their relationship to the
 mainline kernel version is.

 Also, Jeff Garzik was the one doing the initial checkin, but didn't respond to
 a direct question asking where the firmware came from, and under which licence.
  •  Mail sent to broadcom driver support channel, and response received :

 Response from Broadcom: I have forwarded this request to our development team
 as well as our line product manager. I will inform you, once a decision is made

 Comment from Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com> :
 > So, where is the source for it ?
 The GPL'd driver that broadcom distributes.  The history of tg3.c
 is that broadcom's bcm57xx driver drove the hardware correctly but
 not linux so it was rewritten from scratch.

 The ball is definitively in Broadcom's camp.

 2005.05.25: Broadcom made a licencing proposal, shown below :

   /* xxx.h: Broadcom tg3 network driver.
    *
    * Copyright (c) 2004, 2005 Broadcom Corporation
    *
    * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    * the Free Software Foundation, except as noted below.
    *
    * This file contains firmware data derived from proprietary unpublished
    * source code, Copyright (c) 2004, 2005 Broadcom Corporation.
    *
    * Permission is hereby granted for the distribution of this firmware data
    * in hexadecimal or equivalent format, provided this copyright notice is
    * accompanying it.
    */

 This is rather encouraging, and sounds ok to me to make the driver
 distributable in non-free. I have posted to debian-legal, so let's see what 
 will come of it
 --
 SvenL
  •  Case information:
     > Below is a response to your case number ["CS00003271"] submitted to
       Broadcom NIC Technology Support.
     > 
     > Case Title: ["GPLed"] driver and binary-only firmware blobs.

 The ball may be in Broadcom's court, but if we want this resolved in a timely
 fashion, we'll probably need to pester them regularly.  -dil

 FYI: Broadcom's bcm57xx driver contains the firmware, in hex blobs only, in
 files which claim to be licensed under the GPL -- just like the Linux driver.
 This of course means that Broadcom didn't know what they were doing when they
 released it.  If they could explain what they actually intended to do, we
 could probably convince them to actually do it, whatever it is.  -neroden


Drivers being '''INSPECTED'''

advansys (drivers/scsi):

 * Copyright (c) 1995-2000 Advanced System Products, Inc.
 * Copyright (c) 2000-2001 ConnectCom Solutions, Inc.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that redistributions of source
 * code retain the above copyright notice and this comment without
 * modification.
 *
 * As of March 8, 2000 Advanced System Products, Inc. (AdvanSys)
 * changed its name to ConnectCom Solutions, Inc.

 not contacted yet
 This looks fine; the driver and firmware appears to be BSD-licensed. -dil

ip2main.c (drivers/char):

 *   (c) 1999 by Computone Corporation

 loads ip2/fip_firm.h
  •  no license information '''anywhere'''

 COMPUTONE INTELLIPORT MULTIPORT CARD
 P:      Michael H. Warfield
 M:      Michael H. Warfield <mhw@wittsend.com>
 W:      http://www.wittsend.com/computone.html
 L:      linux-computone@lazuli.wittsend.com
 S:      Orphaned

 http://www.wittsend.com/computone.html contains a link to a slightly different
 driver: http://www.wittsend.com/computone/linux-2.2-ctone-1.2.4.patch.gz
 This patch includes additional author and contact information.

 Michael H. Warfield <mhw@wittsend.com> - awaiting response (apr 14)
 support@computone.com - bounced
 Andrew Manison <amanison@america.net> - bounced
 linux-computone@lazuli.wittsend.com - bounced -dil

dsp56k.c (drivers/char):

 * The ["DSP56001"] Device Driver, saviour of the Free World(tm)
 *
 * Authors: Fredrik Noring   <noring@nocrew.org>
 *          lars brinkhoff   <lars@nocrew.org>
 *          Tomas Berndtsson <tomas@nocrew.org>
 *
 * First version May 1996
 *
 * History:
 *  97-01-29   Tomas Berndtsson,
 *               Integrated with Linux 2.1.21 kernel sources.
 *  97-02-15   Tomas Berndtsson,
 *               Fixed for kernel 2.1.26
 *
 * Copyright (C) 1996,1997 Fredrik Noring, lars brinkhoff & Tomas Berndtsson
 *
 * This file is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public
 * License.  See the file COPYING in the main directory of this archive
 * for more details.

 Not yet contacted

mga (drivers/char/drm):

 /''' mga_ucode.h -- Matrox G200/G400 WARP engine microcode -'''- linux-c -*-
 * Created: Thu Jan 11 21:20:43 2001 by gareth@valinux.com
 *
 * Copyright 1999 Matrox Graphics Inc.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
 * in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
 * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
 * MATROX GRAPHICS INC., OR ANY OTHER CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
 * DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
 * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
 * OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 *
 * Kernel-based WARP engine management:
 *    Gareth Hughes <gareth@valinux.com>
  •  Not contacted yet 
     Another BSD licensed driver; is this not ok?  -dil
     Looks distributable, since the microcode does appear to be subject to the same
     copyright and license as the driver (contrast r128 and radeon) -neroden

pcxx (drivers/char):

 *  linux/drivers/char/pcxx.c
 * 
 *  Written by Troy De Jongh, November, 1994
 *
 *  Copyright (C) 1994,1995 Troy De Jongh
 *  This software may be used and distributed according to the terms 
 *  of the GNU General Public License.
 *
 *  This driver is for the DigiBoard PC/Xe and PC/Xi line of products.
 *
 *  This driver does NOT support DigiBoard's fastcook FEP option and
 *  does not support the transparent print (i.e. digiprint) option.
 *
 * This Driver is currently maintained by Christoph Lameter (christoph@lameter.com)
 *
 * Please contact digi for support issues at digilnux@dgii.com.
 * Some more information can be found at
 * http://lameter.com/digi.

 includes digi_fep.h digi_bios.h wich just contain hexdumps, and no copyright header

 Not contacted yet

r128 (drivers/char/drm):

 /''' r128_cce.c -- ATI Rage 128 driver -'''- linux-c -*-
 * Created: Wed Apr  5 19:24:19 2000 by kevin@precisioninsight.com
 *
 * Copyright 2000 Precision Insight, Inc., Cedar Park, Texas.
 * Copyright 2000 VA Linux Systems, Inc., Sunnyvale, California.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
 * paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
 * Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
 * PRECISION INSIGHT AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
 * OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
 * ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
 * DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 *
 * Authors:
 *    Gareth Hughes <gareth@valinux.com>

 contains "CCE microcode (from ATI)"
  •  Not contacted yet
     BSD licensed, firmware ok? -dil
     The problem here is that we don't have a copyright notice or license from
     ATI to go with the microcode "from ATI".  (If ATI has transferred the
     copyright to Precision Insight or VA Linux, all would be well, but there's no
     reason to believe that they did, and plenty of reason to believe that they
     didn't.) -neroden

radeon (drivers/char/drm):

 /''' radeon_cp.c -- CP support for Radeon -'''- linux-c -*-
 *
 * Copyright 2000 Precision Insight, Inc., Cedar Park, Texas.
 * Copyright 2000 VA Linux Systems, Inc., Fremont, California.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
 * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
 * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
 * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice (including the next
 * paragraph) shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
 * Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
 * IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
 * PRECISION INSIGHT AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR
 * OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
 * ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
 * DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 *
 * Authors:
 *    Kevin E. Martin <martin@valinux.com>
 *    Gareth Hughes <gareth@valinux.com>

 contains "CP microcode (from ATI)"

 not contacted yet
 Another BSD license?
 Exactly like r128 -neroden

ser_a2232 (drivers/char)

 * Copyright (c) 1995 Jukka Marin <jmarin@jmp.fi>.
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, and the entire permission notice in its entirety,
 *    including the disclaimer of warranties.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 * 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote
 *    products derived from this software without specific prior
 *    written permission.
 *
 * ALTERNATIVELY, this product may be distributed under the terms of
 * the GNU Public License, in which case the provisions of the GPL are
 * required INSTEAD OF the above restrictions.  (This clause is
 * necessary due to a potential bad interaction between the GPL and
 * the restrictions contained in a BSD-style copyright.)

 copyright from included file ser_a2232fw.h

 Not yet contacted 
 Dual licensed BSD/GPL, we can choose BSD for the firmware.  If there's some 
 sort of bad interaction between the GPL and BSD license (as the above seems
 to imply), we've got larger problems. :p  -dil
 Definitely distributable -neroden

pca200e.data, pca200e_ecd.data, sba200e_ecd.data (drivers/atm):

 Firmware files accompanying the FORE Systems 200E-series driver for ATM on
 Linux (fore200e.c). Distributed under the terms presented in drivers/atm/fore200e_firmware_copyright:

 These microcode data are placed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. 

 We would prefer you not to distribute modified versions of it and not to ask
 for assembly or other microcode source.

 Copyright (c) 1995-2000 FORE Systems, Inc., as an unpublished work.  This 
 notice does not imply unrestricted or public access to these materials which
 are a trade secret of FORE Systems, Inc. or its subsidiaries or affiliates 
 (together referred to as "FORE"), and which may not be reproduced, used, sold 
 or transferred to any third party without FORE's prior written consent.  All
 rights reserved.

 U.S. Government Restricted Rights.  If you are licensing the Software on 
 behalf of the U.S. Government ("Government"), the following provisions apply
 to you.  If the software is supplied to the Department of Defense ("DoD"), it 
 is classified as "Commercial Computer Software" under paragraph 252.227-7014
 of the DoD Supplement to the Federal Acquisition Regulations ("DFARS") (or any 
 successor regulations) and the Government is acquiring only the license
 rights granted herein (the license rights customarily provided to non-Government 
 users).  If the Software is supplied to any unit or agency of the Government
 other than the DoD, it is classified as "Restricted Computer Software" and
 the Government's rights in the Software are defined in paragraph 52.227-19 of
 the Federal Acquisition Regulations ("FAR") (or any successor regulations) or,
 in the cases of NASA, in paragraph 18.52.227-86 of the NASA Supplement to the FAR 
 (or any successor regulations).

 FORE Systems is a registered trademark, and ForeRunner, ["ForeRunnerLE"], and 
 ForeThought are trademarks of FORE Systems, Inc.  All other brands or product 
 names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.


Bill Allombert's study of the problem in the 2.4.25 kernel : http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/04/msg00074.html

A more formal analysis of the steps to take, from Humberto Massa : http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2005/04/msg00192.html