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authorUwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@kernel.org>2024-11-15 11:38:41 +0100
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2024-11-22 10:44:25 -0700
commitd8c949c577b5adb9fb87923b5429767aae4be590 (patch)
tree6055850bf830dd902e11ddb4a9f4fd3d7a876967 /Documentation/process
parent21e500138b6f3040423bb1959ac9ffe68d138733 (diff)
docs/licensing: Clarify wording about "GPL" and "Proprietary"
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@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241115103842.585207-2-ukleinek@kernel.org
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/process')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/process/license-rules.rst18
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
index 2ef44ada3f11..59a7832df7d0 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/license-rules.rst
@@ -471,14 +471,16 @@ _`MODULE_LICENSE`
source files.
"Proprietary" The module is under a proprietary license.
- This string is solely for proprietary third
- party modules and cannot be used for modules
- which have their source code in the kernel
- tree. Modules tagged that way are tainting
- the kernel with the 'P' flag when loaded and
- the kernel module loader refuses to link such
- modules against symbols which are exported
- with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().
+ "Proprietary" is to be understood only as
+ "The license is not compatible to GPLv2".
+ This string is solely for non-GPL2 compatible
+ third party modules and cannot be used for
+ modules which have their source code in the
+ kernel tree. Modules tagged that way are
+ tainting the kernel with the 'P' flag when
+ loaded and the kernel module loader refuses
+ to link such modules against symbols which
+ are exported with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().
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