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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    A more serious QPL-1.0 problem
From:       "Adam J. Richter" <adam () yggdrasil ! com>
Date:       1999-03-12 11:39:06
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	I think a more serious GPL incompatibility of QPL-1.0 is
QPL section 3b (my emphasis added):

|       b. When modifications to the Software are released under this
|          license, a non-exclusive royalty-free right is granted to
|          the initial developer of the Software to distribute your
|          modification in future versions of the Software provided
|          such versions remain available under these terms IN ADDITION
|          TO ANY OTHER LICENSE(S) OF THE INITIAL DEVELOPER.

	This is a further restriction to the GPL, since the GPL does
not require such a permission grant, and it is illegal to publish
modifications to QPL'ed software without making such a grant.

[You can stop reading here if you want.  The rest of this is just
more detail.]



	The problem with QPL-1.0 section 3b is not some minor technical
quibble.  It is actually a huge fundamental difference for a reason that
is not obvious at first.  If the QPL were widely adopted by others, it
would break the software recycling that has made free software so much
more efficient than proprietary software.  How?  Because it is illegal
to combine two works that are covered by _just_ the QPL if the initial
developer is different.

	Let's say that the Open Software Foundation decides to put
Motif under the QPL with the Open Software Foundation designated as
the initial developer.  Now let's say I want to produce a derivative
work that is the Qt Library with the Motif Mrm resource management
code merged in.  The result would be a derivative work of both Motif
and Qt.  Satisfying all of the copying conditions for distributing
this code would require satisfying the QPL's of both OSF and Troll:

	Troll's QPL requires that OSF grant permission for this work
	to be distributed under any future Troll "license(s)", which
	OSF's QPL does not do.  Distributing the combined work is
	therefore an infringement of Troll's copyright.

	OSF's QPL requires that Troll grant permission for this work
	to be distributed under any future Troll "license(s)", which
	Troll's QPL does not do.  Distributing the combined work is
	therefore also an infringement of OSF's copyright.

	Now OSF and Troll could get around this by granting additional
permission for each other to distribute under all of each other's future
copying conditions, but to make such a scheme applicable to the
programming community as a whole, they would have to grant everyone
such permissions, which is functionally the same as public domain.
(Alternatively, they could modify the QPL, but that's the whole point.)

	Because widespread adoption of the QPL would outlaw the
software sharing and recycling that drive free software (i.e., outlaw
it within the QPL'ed software pool), I think this GPL incompatability
should be treated as a serious fundamental problem with QPL-1.0, and
not some minor technicality that perhaps the GPL should be modified to
accomodate.



Side notes:

	1. Of course, the cause of QPL's mutual incompatibility is
that the Initial Developer is different for different programs, which
is why the GPL'ed permission grant for distribution under future
versions of the GPL does not have the compatibility problem.

	2. The Mozilla Public License has the mutual incompatibility
problem too, but in the MPL it only occurs if you need to comingle
material from two MPL'ed sources in the same source file.

	3. The QPL's prohibition on distributing source code as anything
other than the pristine version and separate modifications also
forbids derivative works that combined two or more QPL'ed works.

	4. I am not a lawyer, so this should not be taken as legal
advice.


Adam J. Richter     __     ______________   4880 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 104
adam@yggdrasil.com     \ /                  San Jose, California 95129-1034
+1 408 261-6630         | g g d r a s i l   United States of America
fax +1 408 261-6631      "Free Software For The Rest Of Us."

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