Re: Software that requires hardware that requires nonfree software to use

[David Hedlund]

On 2021-10-09 02:50, David Hedlund wrote:

> On 2021-10-08 22:40, Ian Kelling wrote:
> > Ron Nazarov <ron@noisytoot.org> writes:
> >
> > > Is software that requires hardware that requires nonfree software to
> > > use allowed in the Free Software Directory?
> > > I think it indirectly has dependencies on nonfree software, as there is
> > > no way to use it without using nonfree software.
> > >         
> > I think that if the nonfree software is outside of the bounds of the
> > free operating system that the free software is running on, it is ok to
> > be listed. For example, some software to do printing from gnu/linux on a
> > printer that has it's own internal nonfree os is ok.
> >
> >       
> Now I remember that Stallman said something similar to me many years
> ago. I added your text to
> https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Collection:Device_drivers_and_firmware --
> Thanks!
>
>

However, my guess is that it's likely that the FSF will change their mind about this in the future. Read this article for example:

by CyberNews Team 27 August 2020: We hijacked 28,000 unsecured printers to raise awareness of printer security issues - https://cybernews.com/security/we-hacked-28000-unsecured-printers-to-raise-awareness-of-printer-security-issues/

Nonfree JS was not prioritized back in the days.