Just a quick note: after a day of emailing with an understanding Brother support, it appears that if you want to get the HL-L8250CDN working under Arch Linux, and you're out of luck extracting the .deb and or the .rpm packages, you can use the - still proprietary, but working drivers for the HL-L8350CDW.

Under Arch Linux, that means an easy yaourt -S HL-L8350CDW.

Afterwards, you just visit the cups web configuration utility and add the printer there. Hint: use the AppSocket/HP JetDirect socket.

Brother Belgium cannot GPL their drivers, as Japan is the HQ in charge. "It's a bit like NVidia and AMD".

If you have a similar printer, want to get into reverse engineering and you're in a legislation that allows that (basically European Union, or you want to take the risk), get in touch with me. My contact details are on my consulting page.