Here is what I suggested somewhere on Gerrit [1]:
I was thinking we could move the current `3rdparty/blobs` to something like `3rdparty/limited_blobs` or `3rdparty/ restrictive_blobs`. And guard it like the `amd_blobs`. Then move anything without doubts about redistribution to a new `3rdparty/blobs`.
I guess this would be a good first step. If we want to further separate the restrictive blobs by their licenses, we can still do that later. However, if it turns out that there is close to nothing to move to the new repository, we could as well just keep the current one and disable its automatic download (and announce that people should stop mirroring it).
Okay, sounds like we have general agreement on the second repository approach? I don't think we'd want to disable automatic downloading for the primary blobs repository because I think many people value that for convenience. I agree that we can start with a single restricted_blobs repo for now and see if there is a need to split it up further later.
Patrick, any further concerns from your side? If not, would you mind creating a new repository for this? I can write the patches to move blobs and adjust the Makefiles afterwards.
That would have been me on Gerrit. I'm not 100% sure where distribution ends and redistribution starts. But some of the AMD licenses in the old blobs repository are either absolutely limited in redistribution or not redistributable at all (by any meaningful definition of the term). They explicitly limit distribution to be used with the distributors products "that incorporate AMD products". That thing is written for ODMs/OEMs but no-one else. And said distribution would not happen under the terms of the same license but an EULA embedded into it.
Yeah, upon reading the AMD license a bit more closely I agree the redistribution parts look a bit concerning to me as well. I don't know exactly what we'd want to do with that, but let's please keep that discussion separate from the one about other blobs that only have the "must agree to license when downloading" problem (I am mostly just trying to find a way to get my Qualcomm board supported right now). The amd_blobs already have a separate repo, so I guess someone should clean up the affected stuff from the main blobs repo for now and then we can decide what to do with the amd_blobs repo (maybe we put a big warning on it not to clone and rehost this publicly or something).