Hi Jonathan,
Is there another way of providing ethernet support for this platform without the license violation? Are there any legal ramifications that follow? (Are they more likely to come from Intel or elsewhere?)
It seems that u-boot wouldn't build until I added the file (I suppose that I could have tried disabling ethernet)...
Take a look at the www.nslu2-linux.org project.
The NSLU2 is a Linksys USB network storage device. It has the same issue with IXP4xx Intel firmware.
The Slug's, as they are fondly referred to, use RedBoot as a bootloader, and there exist various Linux kernels.
Look around the NSLU2 web site for comments on the Intel firmware. If there is nothing definitive there, I recall Rod Whitby posted messages to the nslu2-linux newsgroup explaining the requirements; check the archives, or join the group and ask Rod directly.
I haven't looked into the details, but I figured you might not be aware of the project, so this might help.
Regards, Dave