[zajio1am]

There is a difference from legal point. If the firmware is hardcoded in device, you do not need to accept any license contract with IP holder. You do not need to copy it, and your right to run it is implied from ownership of the device. If the firmware is independent part bundled with OS, then anyone who wants to run it or even just distribute the OS must accept the license.

[iudqnolq]

Are you guessing what sounds logical to you or do you actually know the answer here?

The legal system sometimes has definitions of copying that aren't that straightforward. I've seen in a copyright context judges talk about a computer loading software into RAM being copying.

Intel microcode comes with a license: https://bugs.gentoo.org/664134

[zajio1am]

> Are you guessing what sounds logical to you or do you actually know the answer here?

IANAL, but this is a general concept of exhaustion of IP rights when the IP is sold as a part of physical medium, see (28) and article 4 of EU copyright directive 2001/29.

> The legal system sometimes has definitions of copying that aren't that straightforward. I've seen in a copyright context judges talk about a computer loading software into RAM being copying

This is handled in (33) of the directive:

"The exclusive right of reproduction should be subject to an exception to allow certain acts of temporary reproduction, which are transient or incidental reproductions, forming an integral and essential part of a technological process and carried out for the sole purpose of enabling either efficient transmission in a network between third parties by an intermediary, or a lawful use of a work or other subject-matter to be made."

[ThePowerOfFuet]

The term you're looking for regarding the numbers you have in parentheses is _recital_.