Daniel Ouellet wrote: [..] > Let me put it better then. I use their GPL part here ONLY to show how > more ridiculous the answer was and oppose to what you say, they wrote > and quote "A GPL Linux device driver for the Marvell wireless chip..." > and then at the same time, they say they can't release anything. Then > you go saying it possible to keep secret code that is GPL. All just > doesn't fit, sorry!
Their firmware is *NOT* covered by the GPL. The GPL'd driver is written by someone else. There is nothing ridiculous about that, that is simply (unfortunately) the way it is. The firmware is the binary version of that though. The problem with Marvel is that even though people can make their own sources and thus drivers from reverse engineering, like the OpenBSD guys did, they can't re-distribute the firmware that is needed to actually make the device work. > What got me going was that you turn the stupidity of their answer into a > GPL/BSD issue that frankly have nothing to do with the essence of the > problem where they refuse to release documentations and allow > redistributions of FIRMWARE Also from your post above "I use their GPL part here ONLY to show how...": if you don't want comments on it then don't mention it. Fortunately you seem to get the essence: they refuse to release their docs and allow redistribution of their firmware. That is the problem at hand and nothing else. Two ways around it: hard route: making own firmware (better make your own wireless etc then too ;) or ask nicely, or not so nicely, and try them to release documentation or change licensing. > But I didn't make it a GPL issue, I use the GPL to show how untrue they > really are, based on the principal of the license that all GPL defenders > say it's good for. GPL is about forcing others to release their code, nothing else. Which is what I noted originally: it is less free&open than than BSD. Thus there is nothing 'free' nor 'open' about GPL except that you can take a look at the code and that you have a possibility to enhance and maybe contribute to it, but for businesses that is useless. Greets, Jeroen [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]
