[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

[Buchan Milne]

----- "Maarten Vanraes" <maarten.vanraes at gmail.com> wrote:

> Op donderdag 24 maart 2011 11:18:03 schreef Olivier Blin:
> > Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com> writes:
> > >>> It can't be "free" and have "non-free" firmware... previously
> the
> > >>> firmware only were on the Live CD's. I am not sure anything has
> been
> > >>> changed in that regard (i.e. I didn't see the matter get
> discussed
> > >>> yet).
> > >> 
> > >> They were also on the PowerPack images, and they are installed
> > >> automatically over a network install
> > > 
> > > But to be installed via network you have to have a network
> connection
> > > first, n'est-ce pas?
> > > That's what this thread is about.
> > 
> > It is now also about "in which media should we include non-free
> > packages?" :)
> 
> no, about if they are really non-free... stuff released as BSD is free
> in my 
> book. if they don't comply, they could be sued for all i care, but
> it's still 
> free.

Well, even if they say the source code is BSD, if:
1)The source is not provided (under a free license)
2)The source can't be compiled with a free toolchain
then it is non-free, and most likely the license is wrong, and they have chosen to relicense from BSD to a proprietary licence (which BSD of course allows).

Compare e.g. Darwin and Mac OS X. Since Mac OS X is has some originally BSD source code, must Apple provide me with complete Mac OS X source code? If they don't, do I have grounds to sue? No. Is it Free? Most definitely not.

Regards,
Buchan