GeForce nvidia driver license for commerical use?

Roberto A. Foglietta

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Oct 3, 2022, 2:00:03 PM10/3/22

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Hi all,

reading this link here below, it seems that compilation and repackaging the content is prohibited by their license. What's your opinion on this?

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/10082/geforce-nvidia-driver-license-for-commerical-use

In fact, up today (515.76) the .run archive that contains the driver and the CUDA libraries is licenced in a way for which two essential operations are not permitted:

§2.1.2 does not allow the compilation essential for deliver a binry driver
§2.1.3 does not allow to repackage the .run content in many .deb packages

The license could be found inside the .run archive downloadable from this url

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix

Best regards, R-

Simon McVittie

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Oct 3, 2022, 2:50:02 PM10/3/22

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On Mon, 03 Oct 2022 at 19:52:23 +0200, Roberto A. Foglietta wrote:
> reading this link here below, it seems that compilation and repackaging the
> content is prohibited by their license. What's your opinion on this?

Please note that the Debian maintainers of nvidia-graphics-drivers have
received special permission from Nvidia beyond what is allowed by the
license in the .run archive. Please see
https://tracker.debian.org/media/packages/n/nvidia-graphics-drivers/copyright-510.85.02-2
(or equivalent for other versions) for details.

If you plan to repackage this driver outside Debian or distribute it
commercially, you will need to talk to Nvidia directly, or obtain your
own legal advice.

smcv

Roberto A. Foglietta

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Oct 3, 2022, 3:20:03 PM10/3/22

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Thank you Simon for the prompt reply.

Are you referring to the special permission given by e-mail by Donald Randall in 2003?

Randall Donald
http://www.khensu.org
rdo...@debian.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/randalldonald/

On which Linkedin profile is reported a volunteer activity as external for NVIDIA

Volunteering Debian
Developer and Archive MaintainerDeveloper and Archive Maintainer
Jan 2001 - Jan 2010 · 9 yrs 2 mosJan 2001 - Jan 2010 · 9 yrs 2 mos
Science and Technology
Debian developer most notably responsible for leading the NVIDIA packaging team.
2001 - 2010

Please, could you explain to me how a company external voluntary could have delivered a legally binding permission?

Best regards, R-

Simon McVittie

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Oct 3, 2022, 4:00:02 PM10/3/22

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On Mon, 03 Oct 2022 at 21:12:50 +0200, Roberto A. Foglietta wrote:
> Are you referring to the special permission given by e-mail by Donald Randall
> in 2003?

I think you're misreading the copyright file. Randall Donald is a Debian
contributor who asked Nvidia for permission to redistribute their driver,
and got a reply (which is quoted in the copyright file) from someone
named Andy.

smcv

Roberto A. Foglietta

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Oct 3, 2022, 4:20:02 PM10/3/22

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Thanks Simon for this clarification but it is not enough yet and I will quickly explain to you why.

Could you bring to our attention the original e-mail or the name/e-mail address of Andy working for nVidia, please?

Because the e-mail address rdo...@debian.org does not exist anymore and he does not reply by Linkedin.

I personally spoke with a USA nVidia manager about licensing in a video conference call and he assured me that the only way to legally receive the nVidia software is downloading from their website.

Moreover, he was acknowledged that the aim was to use Debian. It might happen that everybody in the two teams was wrong but why not suggest to rely directly on Debian, then? It would have been great.

Best, R-

P.S.: forget the other email without the reply to the m-list, thanks.