Re: [PATCH] docs/licensing: Clarify wording about "GPL" and "Proprietary"
From: Jonathan Corbet
Date: Fri Nov 22 2024 - 12:46:53 EST
Uwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> There are currently some doubts about out-of-tree kernel modules licensed
> under GPLv3 and if they are supposed to be able to use symbols exported
> using EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL.
>
> Clarify that "Proprietary" means anything non-GPL2 even though the
> license might be an open source license. Also disambiguate "GPL
> compatible" to "GPLv2 compatible".
>
> Signed-off-by: Uwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Hello,
>
> these are the locations that I found by a quick grep. If you spot a
> document that needs similar updating, please tell.
>
> The change in license-rules.rst looks bigger than it actually is due to
> changing where the line wrappings occur. With `git diff --word-diff` it
> reduces to:
>
> "Proprietary" The module is under a proprietary license.
> {+"Proprietary" is to be understood only as+}
> {+ "The license is not compatible to GPLv2".+}
> This string is solely for [-proprietary-]{+non-GPL2 compatible+}
> third party modules and cannot be used for
>
> Best regards
> Uwe
>
> Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst | 2 +-
> Documentation/process/license-rules.rst | 18 ++++++++++--------
> 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
There seem to be no objections, so I've applied this.
Thanks,
jon