Re: Driver Model

[Jan-Benedict Glaw <jbglaw@lug-owl.de>]

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On Wed, 2003-09-03 10:36:16 -0400, Stuart MacDonald <stuartm@connecttech.com>
wrote in message <002301c37228$bbc89950$294b82ce@stuartm>:
> From: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org 
> > [mailto:linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of 
> > Richard B. Johnson
> > sources are available. If the driver does not contain the appropriate
> > MODULE_LICENSE() string, then several tools will show "tainted" so
> 
> If the MODULE_LICENSE() macro is what determines taint, what's to
> prevent a company from compiling their driver in their own kernel tree
> with that macro and releasing it binary-only? Wouldn't that module
> then be taint-free?

To use it, you've to call it like

	MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

The string (license name) you supply is stored into the module binary
and checked ad module load time. Either it's "GPL" (or a few others
IIRC) or it isn't. If it is, the module is GPL and (after you've shipped
the module) any user can legally ask for sources (and you've to ship
them). If it isn't GPL (or the other accepted variants), it'll taint the
kernel. That'll tell us to not look at oopses, though...

MfG, JBG

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