Hello,
I have a question related to whether it is possible to add a specific
firmware binary to linux-firmware, due to licensing.
the Renesas upd720202 USB 3 host controller requires a firmware binary
that can be downloaded from Renesas website [1].
This latest version of the firmware (2.0.2.6) is from 2013 and is
available on several places online, including Github.
But the license for this firmware [2], displayed when downloading from
Renesas' website, is different from the other Renesas firmware licesne
that already is in the linux-firmware repository [3].
The license [2] says in paragraph 2.1. that:
grants to you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, recovable
license ... to distribute binary versions ... only as incorporated
into Customer Products or Renesas Products
According to the above it should not be possible to add into
linux-firmware, but then we have paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2:
6.1. ... the Licensed Software shall not be disclosed by you to any
third party ...
6.2. Your confidentiality obligations under Section 6.1, above, do not
extend to information which you can demonstrate: (i) is or
becomes generally available in the public domain without fault of
you, ...; (ii) is rightfully obtained by you from a third party
without restriction as to use and disclosure and without breach
of any confidentiality ...
If I understand correctly, according to 6.2. (ii). people who for
example bought a product containing the firmware, but weren't asked to
agree to this license, may have already started redistributing it. The
firmware is generally available on the internet for some time now (for
example on Github).
Can someone who understands legal mojo determine whether it is possible
to add this firmware to linux-firmware?
The drivers/usb/host/xhci-pci-renesas.c code is already written to use
this firmware under the name renesas_usb_fw.mem. The code is there for 4
years already.
Marek
[1] https://www.renesas.com/us/en/products/interface/usb-switches-hubs/upd720202-usb-30-host-controller
[2] https://www.renesas.com/us/en/document/oth/disclaimer8?r=1021051
[3] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/LICENCE.r8a779x_usb3
