[Bug 25966] Re: Printer drivers for Brother

[Till Kamppeter]

The PPD files for PostScript (BR-Script) printers are under GPL and
therefore they can be redistributed. They are also available in the
upstream foomatic-db package.

The drivers for non-PostScript printers are redistributable but they are
closed-source. So they disqualify to be in the main distro, but they can
be added to some extra repository for non-free software without explicit
agreement with Brother. See the license text by going to

http://solutions.brother.com/linux/sol/printer/linux/lpr_drivers.html

and clicking an arbitrary driver download link.

The CUPS wrappers are under GPL again, but they are useless without the
corresponding closed-source LPR driver. On a CUPS system it required to
have both the CUPS wrapper and the appropriate LPR driver for the
printer.

If we do not have an appropriate repository for such packages we can
only reject this report.

-- 
Printer drivers for Brother
https://launchpad.net/bugs/25966