Sure. And the community projects use them, often via complicated scripting to pull them off of existing devices, or just a "gray market" where people share blobs directly or just throw them up on servers without worrying about it.

But what Google needs is a license to redistribute this software in a form where it can be used by an AOSP build, not just as part of a finished device. Apparently the couldn't get it.

So it's a repeat of the OLPC Marvell issue, starting negotiations after the deal is done.

Do you mean the redistributable Marvell wifi firmware? That permission came through pretty quickly, unrelated to Theo deRaadt's weird flame. It just took time, but still happened before production of the laptop started. As I recall, there was never any disagreement between Marvell and OLPC about whether it ought to happen.

(I was working at OLPC at the time.)

IIRC there was some documentation or firmware source that OLPC only asked for after they committed to use the Marvell chip and thus had no leverage.

The various libertas blobs, right? These affected development for the Guruplug/Dreamplug (maybe the Tonido), too.

Can you tell me the story or provide links for that?

I make apps for children and I would very much appreciate information on the subject of OLPC and Marvell

I am not familiar with this issue myself, but this appears to be a decent summary of it: http://www.cmosnetworks.com/OLPC-MarvellIssue-MyWriteUpOfThe...

Yes, but these are signed images meaning you can flash them even if you have a locked bootloader