[gNewSense-users] re:ipw3945 binary license

[michael]

To gnewsense users:

I did some investigation of the license for intel ipw3945.
The sttached .html is from their web-site. I hope this helps.

Michael

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Frequently Asked Questions General Questions License Questions Website Questions Q. What license covers these drivers? A. The wireless drivers themselves are licensed under the GPL version 2. Each of the wireless adapters requires a corresponding microcode or firmware image to be loaded in order to function. The microcode for the ipw3945 driver (ieee80211 based) also requires the use of a user space regulatory daemon. All of those binaries are distributed as binaries under a proprietary, free to redistribute (but not modify), license. For the ipw2100 and ipw2200, in addition to reading over the terms of the license, we encourage you to read the FAQ questions related to that license. For the ipw2100 and ipw2200 drivers, you can view the license here. For the newer projects (ipw3945, iwlwifi, etc.) you can view the license here. Q. Can I freely redistribute the binaries necessary for the drivers to function? A. Absolutely. You can redistribute the binaries without cost (free as in beer). There are restrictions against modification or redistribution of modified binaries, but you can definitely redistribute the originals. The license terms for redistribution of the binaries required for the ipw2100 and ipw2200 projects are different than the terms for the binaries required for the ipw3945 and iwlwifi projects. See the above question for more links to the specific licenses. Q. Why don't you allow modification and re-engineering of the binaries? A. To operate a radio device, the hardware/firmware combination needs to be FCC (and equivalent in other countries) certified; this excludes end user modification which would void the certification. Q. I am a package maintainer and I would like to create a package/distribution/CD that installs/provides the Intel firmware necessary for the ipw2100 and ipw2200 projects. How does one go about doing this according to Intel's terms? [ ipw2100 and ipw2200 specific ] A. There are three key actions that must be performed: Generally distributors alert end users to the fact that components of a package may be covered under a variety of licenses, the specific terms of which vary. Some distributors use an initial license page during the OS install that informs the user that various components are governed by a variety of licenses, and use of the components is subject to the user's compliance with the various licensing requirements. Other package systems support an interactive package approach that requires the user to view and accept the license before they can install it, etc. Any description within the package must indicate that the package is covered by the Intel license, and provide the user with information on how to access that license -- making it clear that the user is not granted a license to use the package unless these terms are agreed to. The package must install the LICENSE file in the same location on the system that the firmware files are installed. If it is standard practice in your distribution to place all license files in a centralized location (for example /usr/share/license), then you are free to place a copy of the license in that location, in addition to placing it in the directory containing the firmware files. NOTE: The above only applies to the license covering the ipw2100 and ipw2200 firmware. Q. I am an end user and I want to be able to make a bootable Linux CD for a friend of mine to use, and I want to include the firmware for the ipw2100 or ipw2200. Does the license covering those files allow that? [ ipw2100 and ipw2200 specific ] A. Intel fully supports this type of sharing. The key point to realize is that by becoming the provider of the software, in as much as the Intel license is concerned, you are essentially acting as an ISV (independent software vendor) and as such, you must comply with the Intel license provisions governing ISVs (see the above two questions). NOTE: The above only applies to the license covering the ipw2100 and ipw2200 firmware. Q. We do not have any type of a "click through" license for each package that is installed, and our packages aren't typically used to create a new OS image. Can we redistribute the binaries for the ipw2100 and ipw2200? [ ipw2100 and ipw2200 specific ] A. The important point is to make sure that the end user is notified that the firmware component is governed by an Intel license and provided with a copy of the license terms prior to downloading or using the software. In the event that the package is automatically downloaded by a package update tool, and that tool provides no provision to indicate to the user that they are installing software that is covered by such a license, then follow the second two points of the above question for more information. NOTE: The above only applies to the license covering the ipw2100 and ipw2200 firmware. Q. The license for the binaries needed with the newer projects (ipw3945 and iwlwifi) seems much cleaner than the license for the ipw2100 and ipw2200. Can you change the terms of the older license? [ ipw2100 and ipw2200 specific ] A. Unfortunately, no. Those binaries contain intellectual property licensed from third parties, and Intel must follow certain contractual obligations in licensing for those components. The ipw3945 and iwlwifi related binaries are all Intel-developed, and we are able to use a simplified license for that product. Q. Is the license covering the binaries for ipw3945 and iwlwifi an open source license? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. No. The ipw3945 binary license is "free as in beer" and allows unlimited, no-cost redistribution of the binaries, but not "free as in freedom" since modification and reverse engineering are not allowed. Q. The ipw3945 binary license looks like a BSD license. Is it? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. It looks a lot like a BSD license. We reused as much language as we could. We believe BSD was a good starting point for a short, easy to understand, permissive license. However, the ipw3945 binary license is in no way an open source license (see previous question.) Q. I am a package maintainer and I would like to create a package/distribution/CD that installs/provides the Intel firmware necessary for the ipw3945 and iwlwifi projects. How does one go about doing this according to Intel's terms? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. You distribute the ipw3945 binary license with the binary blob. Q. That's it? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. That's it. Q. There are a lot of people downstream who draw from my pacakge/distribution/CD. What do they have to do to be compliant with the ipw3945 binary license? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. They have to distribute the ipw3945 binary license with the binary blob. Q. There is a patent license in the ipw3945 binary license. What does that mean? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. Necessary Intel patents needed to use the binaries are licensed royalty-free for use with any operating system licensed under an Open Source Initiative-approved open source license. That includes, by way of example, (not an exhaustive list), all Linux distributions, all BSD distributions, the GNU Hurd, and Open Solaris. Q. Here's a special case. I am a BSD developer, and other people might take my code, relicense it, and use it in a proprietary operating system. Do they get a patent license, too? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. No, they do not get such a license. Q. Isn't that risky for them? [ ipw3945 and iwlwifi specific ] A. The standard BSD license does not include an explicit patent license for any technology. The ipw3945 binary license adds an explicit grant for specific usage to reduce the patent risk for those usage cases; other cases have no extra risk compared to the standard BSD license.

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