Atheros Driver: License Problems Resolved
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has approved dual licensing of the Atheros chipset driver. In an investigation, SFLC identified and resolved possible issues.
The "Ath5k" driver for the Atheros WLAN chipset originally comes from OpenBSD, but to use the code for the Linux kernel the license had to be changed to reflect the GPL. However, this prevented code changes being given back to the original driver. Of course, the OpenBSD project wasn't all that thrilled with the prospect.
SFLC, which offers non-commercial legal advice to free software projects, analysed the code and the licenses used. Legal experts concluded that any changes made can be given back to the OpenBSD project in two out of three branches. One branch is exclusively GPL'd and this makes it extremely difficult to hand the code back to OpenBSD.
The Madwifi project was extremely happy with the results and thanked SFLC for its time and support. The developers hope that any doubt concerning licensing and the code is now resolved.
To achieve more clarity for similar issues in future, SFLC has published guidelines that will help developers to use BSD-licensed code in GPL'd projects in future.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
TUXEDO has unveiled a new InfinityBook Pro with an AMD Ryzen AI 300
This new notebook offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Is This the Year of Linux?
Another major organization has decided to kick Windows and Office to the curb, in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.