Re: [PATCH 0/2] module: Block modules by Tuxedo from accessing GPL symbols

[Werner Sembach]

Hello,

Am 14.11.24 um 11:31 schrieb Uwe Kleine-König:
> Hello,
>
> the kernel modules provided by Tuxedo on
> https://gitlab.com/tuxedocomputers/development/packages/tuxedo-drivers
> are licensed under GPLv3 or later. This is incompatible with the
> kernel's license and so makes it impossible for distributions and other
> third parties to support these at least in pre-compiled form and so
> limits user experience and the possibilities to work on mainlining these
> drivers.
>
> This incompatibility is created on purpose to control the upstream
> process. See https://fosstodon.org/@kernellogger/113423314337991594 for
> a nice summary of the situation and some further links about the issue.
>
> Note that the pull request that fixed the MODULE_LICENSE invocations to
> stop claiming GPL(v2) compatibility was accepted and then immediately
> reverted "for the time being until the legal stuff is sorted out"
> (https://gitlab.com/tuxedocomputers/development/packages/tuxedo-drivers/-/commit/a8c09b6c2ce6393fe39d8652d133af9f06cfb427).

As already being implied by that commit message, this is sadly not an issue that 
can be sorted out over night.

We ended up in this situation as MODULE_LICENSE("GPL") on its own does not hint 
at GPL v2, if one is not aware of the license definition table in the documentation.

It was and is never our intention to violate neither GPL v2 nor GPL v3 and we 
are working on it.

Kind regards,

Werner Sembach

> Best regards
> Uwe
>
> Uwe Kleine-König (2):
>    module: Put known GPL offenders in an array
>    module: Block modules by Tuxedo from accessing GPL symbols
>
>   kernel/module/main.c | 56 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
>   1 file changed, 47 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
>
> base-commit: 28955f4fa2823e39f1ecfb3a37a364563527afbc