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

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Message-ID: <bcb447bc-0de2-4c74-8e17-6b0eb186da70@redhat.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 15:11:33 +0100
From: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@...hat.com>
To: Uwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@...nel.org>,
 Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>
Cc: Werner Sembach <wse@...edocomputers.com>, tux@...edocomputers.com,
 Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@...e.com>, Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>,
 Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@...sung.com>, linux-modules@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@...mhuis.info>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/2] module: Block modules by Tuxedo from accessing GPL
 symbols

Hi All,

On 14-Nov-24 11:31 AM, Uwe Kleine-König wrote:
> 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).

I know I'm a bit late to this discussion.

Still I want to point out that Tuxedo and especially Werner has
always been a good upstream actor and I do not believe that they
are operating in bad faith here, but rather that the GPL v3
licensing is just an unfortunate mistake which is hard to fix
after the fact.

As maintainer of drivers/platform/x86 I have worked quite a bit
with Tuxedo/Werner and their contributions there are much
appreciated. They have also helped a lot with sorting out issues
with the PS/2 keyboard driver on Clevo barebones covering not
only their own models but all models and helping out with cleaning
up the quirk code there which was getting a bit messy.

Also as you know Werner has already relicensed  all the out of tree
drivers which Tuxedo could easily relicense to GPL v2 to GPL v2.

TL;DR: I do not believe that Tuxedo/Werner are acting in bad
faith here and IMHO it would be good to give them some leeway
here while they sort this out.

Regards,

Hans