Re: ACX100 Firmware Licensing

[asenchi_(_at_)_asenchi_(_dot_)_com]

On Tue Oct 26, 2004 at 11:05:52AM -0600, Theo de Raadt wrote:
> For those of you new to this type of (shall we call it) activism,
> let me tell you something.
> 
> I think 6 years ago we asked our user community to contact Adaptec in
> the same way.  We had been requesting documentation for their scsi
> chips, and Adaptec had been giving us the round-about for over a year.
> It was going nowhere.  We asked our users to email the 30-some email
> addresses which we had attempted dialogue with over the year.  Five
> hours later I had a phone call from Adaptec asking me to stop our
> users from mailing them.  I said it was `beyond my control'.  They
> said that a few of the people were HR staff.  I said it was `beyond my
> control'.  Next day, Adaptec asked for two of our addresses.  They
> express shipped boxes containing a full compliment of cards, as well
> as documentation for all their chips.  As a result today you will find
> that Adaptec scsi support in OpenBSD is solid.
> 
> (Similar approaches with other vendors have had impact as well;
> OpenBSD -- and other systems -- are better as a result).  The QLogic
> story is similar.
> 
> In this case, we are not asking TI for documentation for their boards.
> A driver already exists.  I believe it was reverse engineered by some
> Linux people, and BSD work is in progress.  We just want to discuss
> with TI what licensing changes might be possible so that the firmware
> for their cards can be included in Open Source operating system
> releases.  Having to install a firmware file only found on a CDROM
> sold with the card after install is crazy.
> 
> These companies are huge and they shelter their internal decision
> makers; even after weeks orr months of effort it is still impossible
> for us to talk to the right people, and even then, they try to ignore
> us because they do not think our concerns are important enough.
> 
> As consumers, you can change that.  It worked before.  Worth trying,
> no?
> 
> Just tell the right TI people to come talking to me.
> 
> Thanks.

I know that you probably don't need to hear from everyone, but I wanted to let
you know that they have been contacted by me and forwarded to you.

I think this is a great thing and will hopefully produce results similar to
that stated above.

I must say there have been many times that I've wanted to send off a letter
about a closed source product but have never really known what exactly to say.
This letter from Ryan McBride is a great example and will provide a wonderful
template for future 'mass email campaigns'.  Is there a list of products that
we should send this too?  Can people post a list of products they would like
to see?  Ones in particular?  I am going to scour the archives looking for
some, then I'll contact them.

Thanks for all of your hard work.

Proud to be an OpenBSD user,

-- 
  -Asenchi
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