Heh, for those who might be wondering about this, I assume this is in response to an email I send broadcom yesterday. I've quoted it here:
From: Andres Salomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: more firmware licensing issues Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 15:31:53 -0400 Hi, Somewhat related to CS00003271, we (Debian) are trying to clear up the licensing on Linux's acenic driver. This driver was originally written by Jes Sorensen for Alteon, for the Tigon 1 nic chipset. The firmware file, acenic_firmware.h, does not contain any licensing information. I've spoken with Jes; he claims that he was given permission to distribute the code _with_ a GPL'd driver, but does not know what the distribution restrictions on the firmware itself are (and apparently has lost the contract between Alteon and CERN, his former employer). Alteon sold the rights to their NIC design to Nortel years ago; Nortel then sold off some rights to 3Com and/or Broadcom, and 3Com possibly sold off some of these rights to Broadcom as well. So, I'm trying to track down who actually owns the rights to this firmware, and what the licensing is for the firmware. If I should be contacting 3Com or some other company instead, please let me know. On Thu, 12 May 2005 12:55:38 -0700, NIC Technology Support wrote: > Below is a response to your case number CS00003271 submitted to Broadcom > NIC Technology Support. > > Case Title: GPLed driver and binary-only firmware blobs. > > Response from Broadcom: I am truly sorry, I pinged our legal team again > on the subject last monday and again today. No words from them yet. > > Thank you, > > Broadcom NIC Technology Support Team > > ====================================== > > CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVILEGE NOTICE: This e-mail transmission, and any > documents, files or previous e-mail messages attached to it, contain > proprietary or confidential information and information that is legally > privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, or a person > responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby > notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of any of the > information contained in or attached to this transmission is STRICTLY > PROHIBITED. > > If you have received this transmission in error, please destroy the > original transmission and its attachments without reading or saving in > any manner. Thank you. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]