CUDA Toolkit EULA: 'proper books and records'

Hi!

Reading through the EULA, it seems to be fairly permissive, until I reach the CUDA supplement 2.5: Audit. The text in this paragraph raises three questions:

  1. What is considered to be proper books and records?

  2. Having to keep records of the toolkit usage and the auditing measure communicates (at least to me) that the EULA is not as permissive as I thought it to be. This is because the license grant and the limitations are not unheard of, yet this measure is. My interpretation in short: it is free (gratis); commercial use is allowed, with the exception of certain types of application; reverse engineering or any other way to make the software available with the intent to avoid the EULA is not allowed; redistribution of certain specified libraries in binary form is allowed (with some additional requirements). Did I miss anything?

  3. Is private use allowed? If so, is the answer to question 1 different for the private context than for the enterprise context?

Thank you for your time!

EDIT: This is the relevant section: [url]EULA :: CUDA Toolkit Documentation

Only a lawyer can give you legal advice on how contractual language like that is to be interpreted, and lawyers don’t tend to hang out in these forums, nor do they tend to give free legal advice.

I applaud you for diligently reading the EULA. I had never noticed that section before, and I am wondering whether it has always been part of the CUDA EULA.

I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. My layman’s interpretation of section 2.5 of the EULA is that you should make a note (1) which licensed CUDA components are used by your application, and (2) which of the redistributable CUDA components shipped with your application. That record could be a simple text file, maybe retained in a revision control system, and/or printed out and filed each time you ship a new version of your application.

Indeed. I’ve asked around at our software department (lots of experience in dealing with both ends of software licensing) and so far no one is sure what this means. For questions, the NVidia website refers to the forums. (And I’ve tried the feedback option, but with no reply.)