David Given wrote:
I believe that most if not all firmware images these days are signed or
encrypted.
If they were strongly signed, then there should be no problem
distributing the source code, right? People won't be able to make
modifications. It may not help with DFSG compliance though...
Part of the problem, AFAIK, is with law. If so, we are not going to fix
problems with the law by pointing out how silly it is on this mailing
list. In fact, changing the law in multiple parts of the world is
probably outside the scope of Debian.
As such we are essentially sending the message to manufacturers that
they need to distribute firmware on the hardware itself (ROM) instead of
distributing it with the software, because they aren't legally allowed
to distribute the source and we don't want to distribute the firmware
without the source.
Even if it is not law, but an excuse by the manufacturers (there seems
to be some disagreement here), we still aren't going to get the
manufacturers to change their mind by discussing how silly it is here,
or by encouraging people to buy hardware with the firmware on ROM.
Brian May
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