Drivers for Epson CX/RX series

Michael Sweet mike at easysw.com
Fri Jan 14 10:36:54 PST 2005


Tobias Glaesser wrote:
> Hello CUPS developers,
> 
> I found official GPLed drivers based on CUPS for the Epson Stylus
 > CX series, that I didn't find anywehre else and that contain superb
 > support for printers currently not supported by CUPS.
> 
> Check out this site, maybe you can merge it.
> 
> http://www.epkowa.co.jp/english/linux_e/dl_spc.html

I looked at the link.  Unfortunately, since the CUPS imaging library
(libcupsimage.so) is provided under the GPL and the drivers depend on
their closed-source halftone modules, they are violating section 3
of the GPL by providing RPMs - you can't include closed-source object
files in a GPL program unless they are part of the OS, specifically:

     "For an executable work, complete source code means all the
      source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated
      interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control
      compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as
      a special exception, the source code distributed need not
      include anything that is normally distributed (in either
      source or binary form) with the major components (compiler,
      kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the
      executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
      the executable."

The "libsp*.so" share library files that are distributed with the
driver files do not include source code, and are not normally
distributed with the operating system.

Under the terms of the GPL, they can supply the source files but
not the executable packages.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Document Software          http://www.easysw.com




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