From owner-freebsd-hackers  Wed May 10 04:10:51 1995
Return-Path: hackers-owner
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id EAA17253
          for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 10 May 1995 04:10:51 -0700
Received: from UUCP-GW.CC.UH.EDU (root@UUCP-GW.CC.UH.EDU [129.7.1.11])
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with SMTP id EAA17247
          for <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>; Wed, 10 May 1995 04:10:47 -0700
Received: from Taronga.COM by UUCP-GW.CC.UH.EDU with UUCP id AA13615
  (5.67a/IDA-1.5); Wed, 10 May 1995 05:49:18 -0500
Received: by bonkers.taronga.com (smail2.5p) id AA05478; 10 May 95 05:48:32 CDT (Wed)
Received: (from peter@localhost) by bonkers.taronga.com (8.6.11/8.6.6) id FAA05475; Wed, 10 May 1995 05:48:32 -0500
From: Peter da Silva <peter@bonkers.taronga.com>
Message-Id: <199505101048.FAA05475@bonkers.taronga.com>
Subject: Re: A question of downloading device drivers
To: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert)
Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 05:48:31 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: gibbs@estienne.CS.Berkeley.EDU, rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com,
        brian@MediaCity.Com, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
In-Reply-To: <9505100207.AA20621@cs.weber.edu> from "Terry Lambert" at May 9, 95 08:07:42 pm
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 537       
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> The developer.  Note I did *not* say "a bad choice"... I render no
> judgment other than to note that the static inclusion of that code
> in binary form puts kernels distributed with it under obligation
> to the GPL as long as it remains GPL'ed code.  For the CDROM
> distribution, this isn't a problem, but FTP code could be.

Why on earth isn't that a problem for the CDROM distribution?

This GPL-microcode-in-the-kernel business is *really* scary. No matter how
you distribute it you have to put the kernel under the GPL to do it.