* Goswin von Brederlow: >>> That's why I say the BLOB should be in a file rather than the driver. >> >> The problem is that this introduces unnecessary complexity. If the >> blob is required for booting, it has to be put into the initial >> ramdisk anyway, and a fail to see a significant advantage over the >> compiled-in case (neither legally nor philosophically). > > Compiled in the blob MUST comply to the GPL. The nature of being a > blob already seems to violate that. > > As external files other licenses can be used.
I'm not sure that there is a significant difference between ELF linking and other forms of creating a combined file (the initial RAM disk is likely to contain GPL-covered software, too, and for these programs, we won't have the implicit permission to ignore some GPL requirements).
