Non-free files distributed without license/copyright info

[Anssi Hannula]

The debian/copyright file of linux-restricted-modules does not contain the copyright and licensing information for the following package contents:
- acx firmware files
- dvb firmware files

This information is regarded as legally mandatory in
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackagingGuide/Basic#Copyright

I suggest to immediately add the missing information and remove the files that do not have any license/permission allowing redistribution (I believe the DVB firmware files fall into this category).

[Adam Williamson (awilliamson)]

it may be worthwhile to have some kind of cross-distro effort to get a clear license for the DVB firmware stuff, so all distros can include it safely.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Edgy is EOL'd, so closing for 2.6.17.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi anssi-hannula,

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? (ISOs are available from cdimage.ubuntu.com)

If it remains an issue, could you also attach a new /var/log/Xorg.0.log?
Thanks in advance.

The output of lspci -vvnn would also be worth having.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi anssi-hannula,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[Anssi Hannula (anssi-hannula)]

Bryce, this is not an X.org related bug.

[Anssi Hannula (anssi-hannula)]

Adding linux-firmware of intrepid to affected packages, it contains the same dvb firmware files without further explanation.

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Concerning the tiacx1xx firmware files, I found a bunch of download links for them on http://acx100.sourceforge.net/wiki/Firmware which is the upstream site for the development of the driver, but it's not clear where they come from (I would guess from driver CDs or something) and they come with no license file.

Is there an upstream site where these can be downloaded under some clear license terms?

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

I removed the vmware modules from the description as these aren't in linux-firmware anymore or I didn't see them in:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/all/linux-firmware/filelist

[Wade Mealing (wmealing)]

I guess that the problem is that ubuntu has nobody who cares enough about legalities to change things. I guess its easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. I wonder if their commercial customers know that the software is illegal.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Wade, moving l-firmware to main or restricted does not make it any more or less illegal.

Can we move the dependency on linux-firmware from linux-image-generic to linux (which is already in restricted), and move linux-firmware to restricted? Then everything would have a suitable component, without breaking the ogre model.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Please refer to the discussions we had on #ubuntu-devel about linux-firmware originally before putting it in main:

  http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2008/10/14/%23ubuntu-devel.html

Just to be clear, that discussion was before we knew that there were some problems with copyright/licensing statements on objects in linux-firmware. Nevertheless, the arguments there still make sense. Rather than moving all of linux-firmware to restricted, the questionable parts need to be fixed or removed.

[Pete Graner (pgraner)]

I am currently reviewing all firmware with Canonical legal. I'll update this bug as the legal team provides me info.

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Dropped DVB firmware files. They'll soon appear in the Universe package linux-firmware-nonfree

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/linux-firmware-karmic.git;a=commit;h=c2d592ac51e103d3c2b7d1979a4456efc1e2a0c6

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

There is no LRM package in Karmic.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux-firmware - 1.17

---------------
linux-firmware (1.17) karmic; urgency=low

  * Dropped firmware/dvb bits because of lack of licensing.
    They have been moved to linux-firmware-nonfree.
    -LP: #223212

 -- Tim Gardner <email address hidden> Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:30:32 -0600

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Jockey needs to install that firmware package for DVB cards now.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package jockey - 0.5.4-0ubuntu1

---------------
jockey (0.5.4-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * New upstream bug fix release:
    - Update tests for openprinting.org changes; LaserJet 3020 does not exist
      any more, replace with DesignJet 3050CP.
    - Handler: Reload module blacklist after installing a driver package,
      since it might ship blacklists.
    - setup.py: Fix DistUtilsExtra version check. (LP: #428337)
    - jockey-gtk: Check for having $DISPLAY at startup to avoid crashes.
      (LP: #204134)
  * ui.py: Fix error message parsing, thanks to rugby471! (LP: #386375)
  * Add data/handlers/dvb_usb_firmware.py: Handler for DVB USB cards which
    need to have the linux-firmware-nonfree package installed. (LP: #223212)

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:31:45 +0200