On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 11:31 PM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I have two ideas about what Broadcom is doing. > > The b/g device with an ID of 0x4315 and an LP-PHY is the one that HP has > been shipping in many laptops for the past few months. Perhaps HP wants to > offer Linux on those computers, but doesn't want to use ndiswrapper for > wireless access. HP might have enough clout to get Broadcom to budge a > little on the subject of Linux. > > It is also possible that they want to stifle our RE efforts. The license > accompanying the binary blob states: > > "2.6. No Other Rights Granted; Restrictions. Apart from the license > rights expressly set forth in this Agreement, Broadcom does not grant and > Licensee does not receive any ownership right, title or interest nor any > security interest or other interest in any intellectual property rights > relating to the Software, nor in any copy of any part of the foregoing. > > Licensee shall not (i) use, license, sell or otherwise distribute the > Software except as provided in this Agreement, (ii) attempt to reverse > engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the Software; or (iii) use > the Software or other material in violation of any applicable law or > regulation, including but not limited to any regulatory agency, such as FCC, > rules." > > Given some of the other parts of the license relating to penalties, etc., > anyone trying to RE this code could be in a heap of trouble. > > Larry > (Resend of previous message with proper CC list. I clicked "Reply" instead of "Reply to all".) Hmm... IANAL and I don't live in the US, but AFAIK clean-room reverse-engineering for the purposes of making documentation and other non-controversial purposes is allowed, and they can't force you to forfeit this right of yours. Otherwise a patent holder would have no way to know if the software in question infringes their patents. I can also see no copy-protection mechanism attached to the driver, which prevents DMCA attacks (which could override the right to clean-room reverse-engineer the software). To me, this text looks like a response to FCC's robustness requirements. (It's possible that it's only legal to reverse-engineer this blob if you are outside the US.) -- Vista: [V]iruses, [I]ntruders, [S]pyware, [T]rojans and [A]dware. :-) -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
