Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Clearance For New Linux Wireless Driver

Posted by kdawson on from the room-turned-out-to-be-clean dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Software Freedom Law Center has given legal clearance to OpenHAL, a wireless component for Linux, based on their pro-bono review of the code. This announcement dispels allegations of infringement on Atheros' proprietary HAL software. 'We believe that this outcome will clear the way for eventual acceptance of a new wireless driver into the Linux kernel,' said John Linville, the Linux kernel maintainer for wireless networking."

8 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Excellent! by blhack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now if only we could get something decent for Broadcom hardware.... we do have something decent for Broadcom hardware. Link
    --
    NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
  2. It is a sad day indeed by Trigun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When you have to clear your code with lawyers. The best part of it is that if it were a closed source blob, this step wouldn't really be necessary.

  3. some history by cinnamon+colbert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    back in the 80s, kodak developed an instant film,and to make sure it was not infringing the polaroid patent suite, kodak paid for opinions from 3 seperate law firms

    Polaroid sued, Kodak lost, and the opinions did not help them one little bit

    or, would you bet your mortgage on the law center getting it right ?

    1. Re:some history by bigpicture · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We have to make a distinction between patent and copyright. The Kodak / Polaroid issue was most likely a patent dispute about material processes. Patent disputes over software do not have the same firm legal foundation, and are less likely to end up in court. It was probably the copyright infringement part that got cleared by some sort of prior art search.

  4. Finally! by physicsnick · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am the proud owner of a D-Link wireless card, and as much as I love this card, I hate having to use a binary blob to make it work. Ubuntu's the only distribution I've found that works well out of the box with this card because of the streamlined restricted modules.

    Here's hoping this makes it into the kernel soon!

  5. Re:Excellent! by pintpusher · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you know that's pretty insightful, IMO. I didn't really realize this was how I felt until you just said it. When I was a windows only guy, I blamed the hardware, or worse, just assumed it couldn't be done (despite knowing better). I never was at the point where a _blamed_ linux, just understood that it hadn't caught up with the hardware yet. Now that linux has caught up with all my hardware and almost all the hardware I've encountered out in the world, I more and more blame the hardware for failures on my linux machines. I've come to trust the code to work.

    --
    man, I feel like mold.
  6. Free Software HAL == legal? by racyrefinedraj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From what I understand (and from what the Madwifi wiki tells me), the current HAL is closed source because the Atheros chipset has the technical capabilities to broadcast out of the legal range of spectrum allowed by the FCC and similar bodies. Wouldn't distributing OpenHal be illegal? The SFLC seems to answer a different question in TFA - what about the legal ramifications of distributing a free software HAL in the first place?

  7. Re:Linux? by Thyrteen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ah, sure! but as soon as OpenBSD starts porting the broadcom driver in CVS, the linux guys all scream foul play! I see how the ball rolls! *holds up flak shield* -- Free sarcasm, no purchase necessary.