RE: MODULE_LICENSE usage

[David Schwartz]

> My company has been given documentation and the library source under
> the terms of an NDA with the chipset manufacturer.  We are permitted
> to compile the library and distribute the resultant binary blob, but
> not release the source to the library.

> The binary blob is linked into the driver we have written.  We don't
> distribute this compiled module, customers are given the driver source
> and the library blob, which they compile themselves.

Make absolutely 100% sure that your driver source code is not a derivative
work of any existing kernel code. If it is, you may be violating the
copyright of that code just by distributing the source to your driver. If
your driver takes sufficient protectable elements both from the kernel and
the library, it cannot be distributed in source code form.

I would definitely consult a good lawyer to make sure you aren't breaking
any of the rules.

As for the MODULE_LICENSE tag, if it's supposed to indicate the library the
module is under after it's compiled, it's definitely not GPL or GPL with
additional rights. Since you can't get the source code to the entire module
and can't distribute the binary, it's under a proprietary license.

DS


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