License of target_firmware/wlan/ah_osdep.h

[Patrick 'P. J.' McDermott]

Hi,

I tried sending the following message about three weeks ago, but I
wasn't subscribed so it sat in moderation.

On 2014-10-26 16:45, Patrick 'P. J.' McDermott wrote:
> While reviewing the copyright and license notices of the firmware, I
> noticed the following header in target_firmware/wlan/ah_osdep.h:
> 
>     /*-
>      * Copyright (c) 2002-2004 Sam Leffler, Errno Consulting, Atheros
>      * Communications, Inc.  All rights reserved.
>      *
>      * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted
>      * provided that the following conditions are met:
>      * 1. The materials contained herein are unmodified and are used
>      *    unmodified.
> [...]
> 
> With this prohibition on modification, this file isn't open source or
> free software.
> 
> This file apparently comes from the old Atheros HAL Linux and FreeBSD
> kernel module shim [1].  And, despite the license, it has been modified
> since the initial firmware source release and probably by Atheros before
> that.
> 
> Can/should Sam be contacted to request relicensing?  Or could this code
> be replaced somehow?
> 
> [1]: https://madwifi-project.org/browser/trunk/hal/linux/ah_osdep.h?rev=1722
> 
> Thanks,

Revision 162413 [1] of FreeBSD's base repository says that ah_osdep.[ch]
were "mistakenly given a restricted license and not a dual-bsd/gpl
license", and it removes condition 1 from the license.  Does this
suffice as permission from Sam to change the license of this file?
Adrian or anyone else at QCA, can this license (in ah_osdep.h and
NOTICE.TXT) be changed?

Also, there are now two open issues [2][3] on GitHub about this license.

[1]: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=162413
[2]: https://github.com/qca/open-ath9k-htc-firmware/issues/45
[3]: https://github.com/qca/open-ath9k-htc-firmware/issues/70

-- 
Patrick "P. J." McDermott
  http://www.pehjota.net/
Lead Developer, ProteanOS
  http://www.proteanos.com/