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The ipw3945 projectThe ipw3945 projectPosted Mar 2, 2006 21:42 UTC (Thu) by iabervon (subscriber, #722)Parent article: The ipw3945 project
It seems to me that Intel ought to release the daemon under the GPL, using the provision that a modified version may be required to report that it is modified, and have the kernel driver check that the daemon isn't modified. Of course, since the kernel driver is also open source, it could be modified to expect the modified version of the daemon, but someone would have to be intentionally messing with stuff at that point (and they could just make the driver not worry about regulatory stuff).
Alternatively, it could be GPL, but have a "distribute but don't modify" file with the actual rules (and check its hash to make sure it hasn't been modified accidentally). That shouldn't be an issue, since all GPL packages include at least one file that people aren't allowed to change...
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The ipw3945 project Posted Mar 4, 2006 1:24 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] I assume Intel's goal is to prevent intentional setting of illegal parameters rather than just accidental. And that Intel is required to by law. I further assume that the user space daemon uses some kind of encrypted channel that makes it virtually impossible to command the device to change these settings if you don't have the daemon source code. As a user of the wireless adapter, I'd rather have the power to make illegal settings, and other benefits of open source and open everything else. But as a user of the airwaves, I don't want any other Intel customer to have that power. And I'm quite willing to trade all that openness to get it, because it's a lot easier for me to keep Intel honest than to keep thousands of Intel customers honest.
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