Old thread, apologies, but if you were curious: the origin of the proprietary blob exception was in Stallman's policy that "if the software can't be modified at

Old thread, apologies, but if you were curious: the origin of the proprietary blob exception was in Stallman's policy that "if the software can't be modified at all, software freedom is irrelevant". As he wanted to be able to use, say, a microwave that had a proprietary ROM for a timer without needing the source code. I'd argue that there's a gigantic gulf between a microwave and the baseband firmware of a cellular modem that governs all communications into and out of the device, but apparently they don't see it that way.