Live and learn.
In this comment, @CaptainFlint (a relative newcomer to NTDEV but not to Windows drivers, clearly) brought to my attention something that had somehow managed to escape my attention for years.
According to the Windows Compatibility Program and Driver Quality Attestment Testing Agreement V2.0 drivers that are GPL’ed cannot be logo’ed or Attestation Signed by MSFT.
As did Captain Flint in the previous thread, I refer you to Section 7(g) which reads:
(g) Drivers and BIOSes are not, and when delivered to Microsoft will not be, in whole or in part, governed by
an Excluded License. An “Excluded License” is any license that requires, as a condition of use, modification and/or
distribution of software subject to the Excluded License, that such software and/or other software combined and/or
distributed with such software be (i) disclosed or distributed in source code form; (ii) licensed for the purpose of
making derivative works; or (iii) redistributable at no charge.
The reason, apparently, is that once a driver is signed by MSFT, MSFT can’t prevent the driver from being distributed via Windows Update. And this distribution would (apparently) make them liable for providing the source code for that driver (which they do not have).
Now, I’m no fan of GPL licenses (and that’s putting it mildly). You want to make your source code available? There are MIT and Apache licenses for that. But, whatever… This isn’t the place to argue that.
FYI, if you violate the agreement “some or all of the Company Products may be removed from the Microsoft Lists” (according to clause 2(g) of the Agreement. So that means you risk losing your Attestation Signing or Logo for potentially all of your products.
The point is… Wow. I never knew this.
Peter