[arch-dev-public] Wlan Linux Broadcom binary drivers

[Eric Belanger]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2008, Aaron Griffin wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Tobias Powalowski <t.powa at gmx.de> wrote:
>> Hi
>> http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
>> just found this on the net, would you guys like to see this drivers in core?
>>
>> If a native english speaker could look at the license of the binary blob on
>> redistribution, we could integrate those drivers.
>>
>> I don't have such hardware, so someone else would need to test functionality.
>> your opinions on it?
>
> Looking at it, I noticed this in section 2.3 (b):
> 2.3.	Restriction on Distribution.
> Licensee [snip] agrees to defend and indemnify Broadcom and its
> licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities, settlement
> amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred in
> connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any third party that
> arises or results from the use or distribution of any and all Software
> by the Licensee except as contemplated herein.
>
> That's a little bit scary, to me. And I also thought we wanted to get
> away from binary blobs and things like that, especially in core.
>
> Is there anything that this driver does that ndiswrapper does not?
>
> Something about that clause seems a little goofy to me. I'm fine with
> this, but I think we should steer away from it in core - only because
> ndiswrapper already covers this as far as I know.
>
> Opinions?
>

I'm also concerned by that clause. Perhaps it would be better to not 
include it in any repo just to be safe.

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