On Mon, 14 Dec 2015 19:20:57 GMT fal...@ivan.harhan.org (Mychaela Falconia) wrote:
> * I am not going to ask TI to release their code under "super-free"
> license terms like FSF would ask for.
As long as the license is free software, everyone would welcome it.
Any of the long list of free software license would work.
Still, try to keep in mind:
-> License compatibility
-> TI's business interests, some free software licenses probably
appeal more to them than other free software licenses.
> If TI folks choose to release
> the software under such totally free license terms on their own
> volition, great, but I am not going to alienate them by demanding
> such. In particular, if TI sets the license terms such that anyone
> who manufactures and sells new phones or modems with surplus TI
> chips and ships them to end users with TI-based firmware flashed in
> them (which is exactly what my end goal is) would have to pay TI a
> per-unit royalty on sold devices, I would have no problem with such
> terms.
They might, would that be considered as endorsement?
> The retail price for a newly made ultra-boutique Calypso
> phone or modem can't possibly be made any lower than $750 USD at the
> minimum, hence paying a small percentage of that to TI as royalty
> similar to what the mainstream phone makers paid Back Then would be
> reasonable. I would also be OK with license terms that restrict the
> use of the software to hardware devices that were legitimately made
> with authentic TI-made chips and for which the original hardware
> manufacturer (be it Motorola in the distant past or yours truly in
> the present) paid TI whatever royalty was agreed upon at the time of
> manufacture.
Here you might have no choice than to pay TI anyway, because of
regulations. In some/(most?) countries, selling phones with
non-certified modems is not legal.
So you might still need a certified modem, including its code for
selling the device. Certifying your modem+code is probably way too
expensive.
Once the user has bought the device, laws in the user country might
not prevent the owner of the device from reflashing any firmware she
wish. However the user should still have to abide local regulations.
If we look at WiFi, I can modify my WiFi driver or firmware, but
I'm not allowed not to respect the frequencies and power
regulations. I'm also probably not allowed to to take down all WiFi
access points of the flat I'm in. Even if I were it would not be
moral to do it.
So I already worked on WiFi drivers and I operated WiFi access
point. I always do my best to abide the regulations, and honestly
it's not that hard. They are just there to make WiFi (and other
wireless transmissions) work.
> * I need to make it crystal clear that if TI says No or ignores our
> petition altogether, I will NOT drop the project, and I shall
> continue it as an explicitly-illegal underground resistance effort.
I'd expected that, at least make what it really is crystal clear
(leaked source).
Denis.
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