[LinuxBIOS] CN700/VT8237RP support needed. Will pay.

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Uwe Hermann <uwe at hermann-uwe.de> [070330 12:19]:
> I _think_ an NDA is not a problem, it (usually?) only protects the
> datasheet itself (you may not give it to third parties), but not any
> code created with the help of the datasheet.

This depends on your NDA contract. One way or the other, before signing
an NDA, you should tell the vendor what you need the data sheets for,
and get written permission to distribute resulting code under the GPL. 

> I suggest you make it perfectly clear to VIA that you're going to use
> the datasheet to enhance a GPL'd project, and thus you will release
> your code under the terms of the GPL, too.

Yes, fully agreed. In the end, this is not only a matter of legal
perspectives, but also of how to establish a good and stable connection
between the LinuxBIOS project and the hardware vendors.

> If they _know_ this, and agree to it, there cannot be any problems.
 
Ack! Contracts are mostly for the cases where something goes wrong, in
one of the contract partner's opinions. So by making this sure before you
start working, you ensure both sides can sleep well at any time and no
evil blood is generated.
 
> (I personally don't like NDAs in general; it would be much nicer if all
> datasheets were publically available; but having datasheets under NDA
> and being able to release GPL'd code is much better than having no
> datasheets at all)

At this moment I want to point out how well AMD has been treating us
since the advent of the AMD64 platform. They have been an early
supporter of LinuxBIOS, and I think it is safe to say they never had any
reason for regret.

Since the firmware is the layer between hardware and software, we need
to make sure to treat hardware vendors as our allies, not our enemies on
the way of producing something good.

We have no reason to support any hardware vendor against their will.
Instead we should convince them that they really have a big gain by
supporting LinuxBIOS.

Stefan

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