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

[Aaron Griffin]

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 5:27 PM, Eric Belanger
<belanger at astro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
> 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.

I agree. My interpretation is something like: if someone sues Broadcom
over these drivers, you guys have to pay court costs.