Ken Arromdee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> * The firmware blob on CD, if free, can be easily modified by end >> users. It's just software. Even given the preferred form for >> modification, it's much more difficult to re-flash a firmware chip >> on hardware not designed for regular firmware uploads.
This was meant to be a demonstration that it's software, and so Debian should care about it being free. > But that's a strange reason to require that the firmware blob on CD be free. > It's essentially saying "if you can make it hard to modify the firmware, > you don't need to allow modifications at all". As always, intent matters. > Can a company release an encrypted CD, so that it's as difficult to modify the > firmware on CD as it is in a chip, and then have it count as part of the > hardware? No, that's not hardware. That's an encrypted CD. That, and the DRM approach below, are just various forms of non-free software. The difference with a chip on a card is not that it's difficult to modify, but that it's not treatable as software! I can't open it in Emacs, so it isn't software. > And what about firmware which gets checksummed by the device in such a way > that you can modify the firmware but can't upload it? -- Brian Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
