Revival of the topic for firmware + DSPcode distribution - suggestion of 2-clause BSD license

Hi Tony,

I Cc our public mailing-list for archival sake, without disclosing your professional e-mail (you are in CCc, not visible), feel free to answer to all.

We renew our request to have an identified license for firmware and DSPcode, proposed license being 2-clause BSD : no need to provide source code (you may though ;-) ), no responsibility for providing it (it may not work, if by chance it works : well, the user is happy).
You may read http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/ols_2006_keynote.html that summarizes our libre approach though...
For distribution of USB firmware & DSPcode, at the present time, we need at least an appropriate license. It could be 2-clause BSD which is added to the appropriate files, namely eu_firmware.h & rtbldei0.bnm (and related), for example :
| Copyright (2006) Analog Devices, Inc.
|
| Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
| modification, are permitted provided that the following
| conditions are met:
|
| * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
| notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
|
| * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
| copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
| disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
| with the distribution.
|
| THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
| "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
| LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
| A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
| OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
| SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
| LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
| DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
| THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
| (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
| OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

A similar license has been adopted by other firms like Atmel that wish their closed-firmware to be distributed as required by
http://users.tkk.fi/~tajyrink/wireless.html which corresponds to our initiative and lent to http://packages.debian.org/changelogs/pool/non-free/a/atmel-firmware/atmel-firmware_1.3-2/atmel-firmware.copyright

Of course, 2-clause BSD is an example and should be approved by your legal department. The important result is that the distribution is allowed by tiers (like eagle-usb.org).

Working toward the goal to get distributing a libre firmware and DSPcode would simplify our common work, it would be easier for Sagem as well and it may get both ADI and Sagem positive results in the libre software community.

Hoping a positive answer on your part, as it is now at least one year you promised that open source is the way to go for ADI (as confirmed by ADI's contribution to gcc the Gnu C Compiler) we remain at your disposal for further explanations or to become involved with your legal department to achieve an agreement on this distribution license.
@++
Ben'. aka baud123 for the eagle-usb.org team

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not yet sent, better keep ikanos for later, if ADI alludes to it (we'll need some contact information and possibly direct e-mails that can be public, perhaps a dedicated e-mail)
Hello,

We've learnt that eagle-usb chipset is now distributed by ikanos as stated at http://www.ikanos.com/solutions/eagle.html.
and announced in January at http://www.analog.com/en/press/0,2890,3%255F%255F90978,00.html

As we are providing a GPL/BSD eagle-usb driver for Linux for the modems that include this chipset eagle-usb, we'd like to work with you.
We've previously worked with Analog Devices, Inc which, notably, permitted to implement eagle-usb III support in the driver. TZ and Farinam Farhamand helped us as far as they could.

Indeed, we need to determine an appropriate license for the USB firmware and the DSPcode (named globally "firmwares" afterwards), that should be distributed alongside the driver to enable synchronization/working of the modem.

We had one major issue remaining (and other less prioritary ones) with the license of the files for distributions : currently there is no officially identified license for firmwares, other than a question by Analog Devices, Inc whether public domain would be possible (which led us to propose 2-clause BSD as a similar offer).

Our latest proposal was to provide the firmwares (USB firmware and DSPcode) under a 2-clause BSD license, which does not make it compulsory to provide source code.
What do you think of it ? An official position on your part would be seen as a great benefit for the Free Software community and for the users of the modems that include your chipset.
TZ told us (privately) that he was looking forward to working with open source community from now on (we inferred for eagle-usb IV as well - or from now on more precisely...).

We are looking forward to working with you and to continue to support the driver for Linux, as we think you can take free publicity for it (and a first good approach of the Free Software Community, contrary to all your bizness-adversaries).

I Cc our public mailing list ueagleatm-dev@gna.org, feel free to answer publicly (to All) or privately to our eagle-usb at eagle-usb dot org private mail.
Sincerely yours
baud123 for the eagle-usb.org team

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hum I cannot Cc TZ as I told I would not dispatch his e-mail /o\, well let's say an official from Analog Devices in charge of strategic business for broadband products. Cc-ing our public mailing-list (and warning about it is a way to implicitely obtain permission to publish the answer).

We should keep it short and factual for first contact : we first need to identify our contact.... then we can detail our request (giving the whole history of requests if needed...)

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0603.1/0476.html [en] yet another thread on kernel ML about binary drivers vs open source driver

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