[Bug 1773888] [NEW] intel-microcode & amd64-microcode are in main component but are not free software

[Ian Kelling]

Public bug reported:

Quoting https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories

"The main component contains applications that are free software, can be
freely redistributed and are fully supported by the Ubuntu team."

The intel-microcode license includes this nice sentence:

"* No reverse engineering, decompilation, or disassembly of this
       software is permitted."

So it's nonfree software.

The microcode packages are now a dependency for linux-image-generic
on x86 so people are getting them automatically.

I expect your excuse is security, but the security issues have been
public since January, and you put the microcode into main in May and I
haven't seen any reports of security breaches.

Take it out of main.

** Affects: intel-microcode (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1773888

Title:
  intel-microcode & amd64-microcode are in main component but are not
  free software

Status in intel-microcode package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Quoting https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories

  "The main component contains applications that are free software, can be
  freely redistributed and are fully supported by the Ubuntu team."

  The intel-microcode license includes this nice sentence:

  "* No reverse engineering, decompilation, or disassembly of this
         software is permitted."

  So it's nonfree software.

  The microcode packages are now a dependency for linux-image-generic
  on x86 so people are getting them automatically.

  I expect your excuse is security, but the security issues have been
  public since January, and you put the microcode into main in May and I
  haven't seen any reports of security breaches.

  Take it out of main.

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