legal September 2026

legal@lists.fedoraproject.org

3 participants
3 discussions

Fwd: Re: Copr hosting question: package that downloads NVIDIA CUDA toolkit
by Gary Buhrmaster 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Forwarding to all ... ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary Buhrmaster <gary.buhrmaster(a)gmail.com> Date: Wed, Sep 16, 2026 at 12:56 AM Subject: Re: [Fedora-legal-list] Re: Copr hosting question: package that downloads NVIDIA CUDA toolkit To: Cristian Le <fedora(a)lecris.me> On Tue, Sep 15, 2026 at 3:08 PM Cristian Le via legal <legal(a)lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote: > Indeed, proprietary software is still accessed during the build sure, but aren't the end artifacts fine to distribute as-is with the license that the authors specified? Nvidia folks at the cuda-python project seem to conclude that these same binaries distributed in PyPI are licensed under Apache-2.0, as it does not bundle the actual cuda library. Presumable not if the proprietary software is included (directly, or indirectly, via cuda headers). Perhaps if you can get nvidia to release the cuda headers under GPL (or Apache, or MIT, or any other approved license) things will get easier, but the requirement that Fedora software be installable without non-Fedora repos still make it problematic for Fedora proper in my opinion. This (as with other proprietary based software), should probably be packaged in RPMFusion (or equivalent).

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Copr hosting question: package that downloads NVIDIA CUDA toolkit
by Pavel Raiskup 15 Sep '26

15 Sep '26

Dear legal team, we received a report regarding the Copr project lecris/cuda-example (https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/lecris/cuda-example/) The reporter states that the package downloads and includes the NVIDIA CUDA toolkit during the build process). The CUDA toolkit is not free/open-source software. The maintainer, Cristian, is in CC (please correct this statement if it's not truth). Per the Copr usage policy (https://docs.pagure.org/copr.copr/user_documentation.html#what-i-can-build-…) material built in Copr must be governed by a license contained in the list of acceptable licenses for Fedora (https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/legal/allowed-licenses/) We would like your guidance on whether packages that download and bundle proprietary NVIDIA CUDA components fall within or outside this policy. Specifically: - Is hosting such packages in Copr acceptable under the current legal guidelines? - If not, would there be conditions under which it could become acceptable? The maintainer of the project has also expressed willingness to reach out to NVIDIA directly to clarify redistribution terms, should that be helpful for your assessment. Thank you for your time. Best regards, Pavel Raiskup Copr Team

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SPDX license list inclusion potential updates (for firmware)
by Jilayne Lovejoy 04 Sep '26

04 Sep '26

Hi all, I wanted to draw your attention to something going on over at SPDX that you may all have input/opinions on: There is a proposed update to the SPDX license inclusion guidelines that would enable linux-firmare licenses to possibly have an SPDX license id. See all the details and links here: https://lists.spdx.org/g/Spdx-legal/message/3778 Notably - if you want to weigh in, please join and comment on the spdx-legal mailing list and/or attend the Sept 10th SPDX-legal call at noon US eastern time. Also, if you have an SPDX license list submission, please make sure to clarify if it is from/a license included in Fedora, as that helps us prioritize those requests. Thanks! Jilayne

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legal September 2026