L4T redistribution License issue for manually generated root file system

[shas1881]

Dear Community members and Nvidia Developers,

Is a company allowed to redistribute a Jetson device installed with L4T Minimal-Flavor OS based on Ubuntu-base as described in Root File System — Jetson Linux Developer Guide documentation (nvidia.com)? Because Canonical website contradicts redistribution terms. They suggest to recompile the binaries and remove trademarks. While Licensing in L4T website allows re-distribution. Many posts in this forum say redistribution is allowed.

So can anyone please clarify this redistribution Licensing terms for Manually created rootfs as described in developer guide.

1. Following is the text from Canonical Website. Intellectual property rights policy | Terms and policies | Ubuntu

Any redistribution of modified versions of Ubuntu must be approved, certified or provided by Canonical if you are going to associate it with the Trademarks. Otherwise you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code to create your own binaries. This does not affect your rights under any open source licence applicable to any of the components of Ubuntu.

2. Following are forum posts in which Nvidia developers had mentioned redistribution is allowed, L4T license redistribution issue, Software Licence - Jetson & Embedded Systems / Jetson Xavier NX - NVIDIA Developer Forums
3. Minimal Flavour of L4T uses Ubuntu base. Wiki of Ubuntu-base, also suggests to refer the same IP page of Canonical mentioned above.

Note that if there’s a commercial intent to your use, then please familiarize yourself with the Ubuntu trademark and copyright policy.

Thanks,

[suhash]

@shas1881 , thank for asking detailed question and providing those links:

On #1: "Otherwise you must remove and replace the Trademarks and will need to recompile the source code to create your own binaries. " - This is an important statement. Trademarks are sprinkled everywhere in Ubuntu source code, so in order to ensure you are adhering to this, i would suggest you reach out to Canonical and discuss your approach.

On #2: The answer was specifically for Linux Kernel in L4T and does not extend to Ubuntu root file system.

Conclusion is that, L4T pacakges a root file system derived from Ubuntu. You will need to adhere to IP terms that you have called out on #1. And reach out to Canonical in case of any questions regarding the interpretation of that.

[shas1881]

@suhash Thanks you very much for clarifying in clear words. We will check with Canonical.