[nycbug-talk] ACX100 Firmware Licensing-Important Message for all the BSD's
Isaac Levy
ike
Wed Oct 27 01:34:59 EDT 2004
Hi All,
Pete directed me to a current issue in the OpenBSD community that is of
interest to all of us, and ALL open source operating systems.
(I hope most would agree this is important enough to warrant this
cross-post, sorry to those of you who subscribe to the OpenBSD-misc
list.)
ACX100 Firmware Licensing
--
Open source software runs on on hardware. That said, the OpenBSD teams
have run into a wall with Texas Instruments, as some specific 802.11b
wireless chipsets have firmware which carries restrictive licenses, and
the OpenBSD team, (and others), cannot legally include the driver with
the operating system.
NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Dragonfly, and all of the Linux's, more, are
all affected, though currently, the OpenBSD team is wailing and
gnashing teeth...
Distributing a driver a given operating system is something we all can
take for granted,
> Having to install a firmware file only found on a CDROM
> sold with the card after install is crazy.
Ryan Mcbride, (who many of us know to be the author of PF and CARP),
had this to say on he OpenBSD-MISC list:
> We'd like to support the Texas Instruments ACX100 802.11b wireless
> chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and others), but we can't include a
> working driver without the firmware binary blob, which is available but
> has a restrictive license. We have tried to contact TI, through all
> the
> channels available to us. They have not even replied to our mail.
>
> We are simply trying to have a frank discussion with the right people,
> and noone inside TI thus far is helping us find the right people.
> Perhaps you -- as consumers -- can convince them to talk to us?
I'm emailing here to solicit the help of our NYC*BUG community(!),
>
> Any other contacts you might have at TI would also be helpful.
>
> Bill Carney <bcarney at ti.com> +1 707 521 3069
> Mr Taketo Fukui <fukui at ti.com> 81-3-4331-2060
> Dr John T Coffey <coffey at ti.com> +1 707 284 2224
> Mr Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com> +1 707 284 2209
> Dr Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com> (214) 480-4432
> Dr Jie Liang <jliang at iee.org> (214) 480-4105
> Mr Joe Mueller <mueller at ti.com> 858 646 3358
> Mr Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com> (972) 9 970-6542
> Dr Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com> (510) 841-8315
> Mr Yoram Solomon <yoram at ti.com> (408) 965-2196
> Tim Riker <tim at ti.com>
> DuVal, Mary" <m-duval at ti.com>
> Anand Dabak <dabak at ti.com>
> "Anand G. Dabak" <dabak at hc.ti.com>
> Tim Schmidl <schmidl at ti.com>
> Sean Coffey <coffey at ti.com>
> Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com>
> Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com>
> Muhammad Ikram <mzi at ti.com>
> Joseph Mueller <mueller at ti.com>
> Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com>
> Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com>
> Ian Sherlock <isherlock at ti.com>
> Manoneet Singh <msingh at ti.com>
> Richar Williams <richard at ti.com>
> Hirohisa Yamaguchi <h-yamaguchi4 at ti.com>
How can you help? You can email the above list of individuals at TI,
and ask that they change their restrictive licensing for their
firmware. Feel free to use Ryan McBride's email as a template, (posted
in full below).
This may seem like a rash action, blindly emailing everyone listed
here, but they have been warned. Also pasted below, Theo de Radt
explains more about how this kind of action got Adaptec to open up
before in a similar manner. It got their attention, and in the end,
made them money selling more hardware, and made Adaptec hardware very
well supported across all open source operating systems.
Those of us who work in larger organizations, or small and complicated
ones, know all too well the complexities of politics and un-informed
business red tape can wreak havoc.
Theo de Radt described later in this list thread,
> These companies are huge and they shelter their internal decision
> makers; even after weeks orr months of effort it is still impossible
> for us to talk to the right people, and even then, they try to ignore
> us because they do not think our concerns are important enough.
>
> As consumers, you can change that. It worked before. Worth trying,
> no?
Worth trying, I think so!
With that, I've pasted below the full emails which I've quoted here,
and would like to ask for everyone to get involved! Send an email from
your company address to the above addresses, and, if your organization
has a CTO/CIO/Manager/etc..., use this information and make sure they
send an email too!
Best,
.ike
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ryan McBride <mcbride at openbsd.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 16:33:49 +0000
Subject: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
To: misc at openbsd.org
We'd like to support the Texas Instruments ACX100 802.11b wireless
chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and others), but we can't include a
working driver without the firmware binary blob, which is available but
has a restrictive license. We have tried to contact TI, through all the
channels available to us. They have not even replied to our mail.
We are simply trying to have a frank discussion with the right people,
and noone inside TI thus far is helping us find the right people.
Perhaps you -- as consumers -- can convince them to talk to us?
Any other contacts you might have at TI would also be helpful.
Bill Carney <bcarney at ti.com> +1 707 521 3069
Mr Taketo Fukui <fukui at ti.com> 81-3-4331-2060
Dr John T Coffey <coffey at ti.com> +1 707 284 2224
Mr Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com> +1 707 284 2209
Dr Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com> (214) 480-4432
Dr Jie Liang <jliang at iee.org> (214) 480-4105
Mr Joe Mueller <mueller at ti.com> 858 646 3358
Mr Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com> (972) 9 970-6542
Dr Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com> (510) 841-8315
Mr Yoram Solomon <yoram at ti.com> (408) 965-2196
Tim Riker <tim at ti.com>
DuVal, Mary" <m-duval at ti.com>
Anand Dabak <dabak at ti.com>
"Anand G. Dabak" <dabak at hc.ti.com>
Tim Schmidl <schmidl at ti.com>
Sean Coffey <coffey at ti.com>
Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com>
Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com>
Muhammad Ikram <mzi at ti.com>
Joseph Mueller <mueller at ti.com>
Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com>
Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com>
Ian Sherlock <isherlock at ti.com>
Manoneet Singh <msingh at ti.com>
Richar Williams <richard at ti.com>
Hirohisa Yamaguchi <h-yamaguchi4 at ti.com>
----- Forwarded message from Ryan McBride <mcbride at openbsd.org> -----
From: Ryan McBride <mcbride at openbsd.org>
Subject: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
Greetings
Since I do not know which one of you to contact, I am contacting all
of you in the hopes that someone can redirect me to the responsible
party who can help me.
I am contacting on behalf of the open source operating system called
OpenBSD, but the message applies to all of the other open source
operating systems (Linux, the other BSD's, etc).
In open source operating systems the support for some 802.11 devices,
drivers such as TIs ACX100 chip, is lagging because the vendors are
taking rather restrictive approaches regarding their technology.
We have begun working on a driver for this chip, but it will be crippled
in our operating system due to the absence of a freely available
firmware image.
Our policy is as follows: We will include a firmware from a vendor if it
is freely redistributable. It can be a binary blob of data. It must be
copyrighted, of course, but that is in the interest of the vendor.
Our user community is very compatibility driven in their purchasing
decisions; they seek out the components that are stable and well
supported, and it is not the ACX100 varients that they will select.
Even if a free driver exists, they will avoid these cards since the
firmware is not included in the operating system, so you are selling
fewer cards than you could. I don't know if the open source operating
systems are rising as much some of the press leads us to believe, but if
they are, you can no longer afford to turn your back on a fickle and
technically savvy community.
In the past, vendors have gotten by because there were no options, but
now that some have begun opening up with freely licensed firmware and
usable technical documentation, open source users have a choice, and
they will be chosing the best supported cards, ie those from vendors who
cooperate with the open source projects.
There is another threat to your business model of remaining closed.
Some vendors like RealTek and Ralink have come out with fully documented
chipsets. Even Intel's Centrino-associated chipsets are now fully
documented, and Cisco's remain documented. And of course we fully
support the old Lucent, Prism, and Symbol devices.
Texas Instruments can avoid getting sidelined in the open source market,
by working with us to release the firmware in a way we can use it.
Other companies that have met with the same firmware choices?
Qlogic ISP scsi/fiberchannel PCI cards
3com Ethernet cards that do IPSEC offloading
Adaptec
Intel 100mbit card firmware upgrades for bugs
NCR for their scsi products
There are about 20 other smaller companies on the list too.
This is a copyright notice from a Qlogic SCSI card firmware:
* Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Qlogic, Inc.
* All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
provided
* that the following conditions are met:
* 1. Redistribution of source code must retain the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistribution 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.
* 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote
products
* derived from this software without specific prior written
permission
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``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 AUTHOR 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.
Four years ago the open source community told Qlogic that they had to
make their firmware free, or the driver would be deleted from the
various operating systems. They resisted us. The driver was deleted
from a couple of operating systems. A few days later they contacted
us again to make the firmware free, and the driver was re-added. We
told our users what was going on, and told them who to talk to.
Five years ago, Adaptec was refusing to give us documentation for
their scsi cards. We worked persistantly to build up communication
with Adaptec and were shunned. So we gave a list of contacts (much
like the cc: list you see above to our user community). Our users
contacted 40 email addresses at Adaptec. A few days later Adaptec
mailed us 2 of every cards they made, along with 2 copies of the
manuals for every chipset they made. And we wrote support for all
their devices, and they have sold thousands and thousands of cards as
a result.
After Qlogic and Adaptec started giving documentation to, all the other
vendors stepped into line very quickly.
The same thing happened with Ethernet chipsets after Taiwanese companies
started making DEC Tulip semi-clones. The market for secrets fell
apart, price and the customer rule now.
We hope to see TI release a set of ACX100 firmware images with
a copyright notice as shown above. We can talk about it. We know how
to craft a copyright notice that will be in your interests, and also
will be sufficient for the full range of Open Source project
requirements.
Otherwise vendors who have opened their firmware and/or documentation,
are going to eat into your business, or seen another way, you will lose
a business opportunity.
In a few days I will be giving the list of contact information to our
user community -- please consider them your customers, your potential
customers, or your lost customers.
If I am not convincing enough, perhaps they can be.
-Ryan
--
Ryan McBride, OpenBSD Project
mcbride at openbsd.org
----- End forwarded message -----
######################################################################
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Theo de Raadt <deraadt at cvs.openbsd.org>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 11:05:52 -0600
Subject: Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing
To: misc at openbsd.org
> We'd like to support the Texas Instruments ACX100 802.11b wireless
> chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and others), but we can't include a
> working driver without the firmware binary blob, which is available but
> has a restrictive license. We have tried to contact TI, through all
> the
> channels available to us. They have not even replied to our mail.
>
> We are simply trying to have a frank discussion with the right people,
> and noone inside TI thus far is helping us find the right people.
> Perhaps you -- as consumers -- can convince them to talk to us?
>
> Any other contacts you might have at TI would also be helpful.
>
> Bill Carney <bcarney at ti.com> +1 707 521 3069
> Mr Taketo Fukui <fukui at ti.com> 81-3-4331-2060
> Dr John T Coffey <coffey at ti.com> +1 707 284 2224
> Mr Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com> +1 707 284 2209
> Dr Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com> (214) 480-4432
> Dr Jie Liang <jliang at iee.org> (214) 480-4105
> Mr Joe Mueller <mueller at ti.com> 858 646 3358
> Mr Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com> (972) 9 970-6542
> Dr Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com> (510) 841-8315
> Mr Yoram Solomon <yoram at ti.com> (408) 965-2196
> Tim Riker <tim at ti.com>
> DuVal, Mary" <m-duval at ti.com>
> Anand Dabak <dabak at ti.com>
> "Anand G. Dabak" <dabak at hc.ti.com>
> Tim Schmidl <schmidl at ti.com>
> Sean Coffey <coffey at ti.com>
> Srikanth Gummadi <sgummadi at ti.com>
> Srinath Hosur <hosur at ti.com>
> Muhammad Ikram <mzi at ti.com>
> Joseph Mueller <mueller at ti.com>
> Lior Ophir <lior.ophir at ti.com>
> Stephen Pope <spp at ti.com>
> Ian Sherlock <isherlock at ti.com>
> Manoneet Singh <msingh at ti.com>
> Richar Williams <richard at ti.com>
> Hirohisa Yamaguchi <h-yamaguchi4 at ti.com>
For those of you new to this type of (shall we call it) activism,
let me tell you something.
I think 6 years ago we asked our user community to contact Adaptec in
the same way. We had been requesting documentation for their scsi
chips, and Adaptec had been giving us the round-about for over a year.
It was going nowhere. We asked our users to email the 30-some email
addresses which we had attempted dialogue with over the year. Five
hours later I had a phone call from Adaptec asking me to stop our
users from mailing them. I said it was `beyond my control'. They
said that a few of the people were HR staff. I said it was `beyond my
control'. Next day, Adaptec asked for two of our addresses. They
express shipped boxes containing a full compliment of cards, as well
as documentation for all their chips. As a result today you will find
that Adaptec scsi support in OpenBSD is solid.
(Similar approaches with other vendors have had impact as well;
OpenBSD -- and other systems -- are better as a result). The QLogic
story is similar.
In this case, we are not asking TI for documentation for their boards.
A driver already exists. I believe it was reverse engineered by some
Linux people, and BSD work is in progress. We just want to discuss
with TI what licensing changes might be possible so that the firmware
for their cards can be included in Open Source operating system
releases. Having to install a firmware file only found on a CDROM
sold with the card after install is crazy.
These companies are huge and they shelter their internal decision
makers; even after weeks orr months of effort it is still impossible
for us to talk to the right people, and even then, they try to ignore
us because they do not think our concerns are important enough.
As consumers, you can change that. It worked before. Worth trying,
no?
Just tell the right TI people to come talking to me.
Thanks.
More information about the talk
mailing list