Bug#388756: zaptel-source: wct4xxp and other modules are not built anymore on zaptel-1.2.8.dfsg-1

[Alessandro Polverini]

On Thu, 2006-09-28 at 14:32 +0200, Stephan Seitz wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 01:07:27PM +0200, Alessandro Polverini wrote:
> >> The wct4xxp module was dropped from zaptel-source since 1.2.7-2, 
> >> becuse it uses sourceless firmware.
> >Any way to overcome that problem?
> 
> a) Get the sources of the firmware;
> b) Get a permission to distribute the firmware (it can’t be part of a 
> file under an open licence like GPL) in a separate file and package it 
> for non-free;

Hello Stephan,
I'll reply with the words of Marco d'Itri[1] on the subject, whom I
completely agree with:

---
Firmwares are an essential part of any modern computer, and it is an
annoying but currently hard to change fact of life that we lack the
source for almost all of them.

I reject the notion that we can ignore some fundamental parts of the
computers which we use only because we do not distribute them: this
would be hypocritical.

Even if Debian stopped distributing sourceless firmwares users would
continue to use them, either on a flash chip or by downloading and
installing them on their file systems.

Such a change on our part would not drive users to buy hardware whose
firmwares are accompanied by their source, because with a very small
number of exceptions there are no such devices. The claim that vendors
would start to distribute the firmware sources is unproven, and indeed I
cannot see how it could happen when only a small part of the community
would care enough to deliberately make life harder for their customers.

Instead this would push the less technically competent users toward
other distributions, whose commitment to free software is usually less
strong than our own.

In this scenario I do not see an advancement for the cause of free
software.
---

Bye,
Alex

[1] http://blog.bofh.it/id_114