[nycbug-talk] OpenBSD and blobs

[michael]

On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:42:07 -0400
pete at nomadlogic.org (Pete Wright) wrote:

> ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me.  so i guess in this case
> nvidia is not providing the doc. and not allowing distribution of the
> binary firmware.  that's a shame, as i doubt if they allowed these
> things to happen they would loose too much custom engineering
> contracts.  who knows maybe they would...
> 
> -p

Well, video drivers are frequently left up to xorg, not the OS.  But
these guys make a lot of other parts too.  This was interesting:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html

Here's as little snip...

	2. GRANT OF LICENSE

	2.1 Rights and Limitations of Grant. NVIDIA hereby grants
	Customer the following non-exclusive, non-transferable right to
	use the SOFTWARE, with the following limitations:

	2.1.1 Rights. Customer may install and use one copy of the
	SOFTWARE on a single computer, and except for making one back-
	up copy of the Software, may not otherwise copy the SOFTWARE.
	This LICENSE of SOFTWARE may not be shared or used concurrently
	on different computers.

	2.1.2 Linux/FreeBSD Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing
	terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use
	on the Linux or FreeBSD operating systems, or other operating
	systems derived from the source code to these operating
	systems, may be copied and redistributed, provided that the
	binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for
	unzipping of compressed files).

	2.1.3 Limitations.

	No Reverse Engineering. Customer may not reverse engineer,
	decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE, nor attempt in any
	other manner to obtain the source code.

	No Separation of Components. The SOFTWARE is licensed as a
	single product. Its component parts may not be separated for
	use on more than one computer, nor otherwise used separately
	from the other parts.

	No Rental. Customer may not rent or lease the SOFTWARE to
	someone else.

-- 

michael