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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    Re: A more serious QPL-1.0 problem
From:       Jeremy Blosser <jblosser () firinn ! org>
Date:       1999-03-12 13:59:37
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Adam J. Richter [adam@yggdrasil.com] wrote:
> |       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.

It is not illegal to publish modifications to QPL'ed software without
making such a grant.  This grant only applies if your modification is
itself licensed (by you) under the QPL.  Thus, it is OPTIONAL and therefore
not a requirement beyond what the GPL requires.

As background, the purpose of this clause is to allow Troll to include your
patch in their pay version of Qt, provided they also included it in their
free version.  This helps prevent separate development branches for the two
versions.

> 	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:

The only thing that is required (if you license your work under the QPL) is
that both OSF and Troll have a grant (from you, by virtue of your choice to
make your work QPL'ed) to include your work in future versions of their
packages.

I don't know enough about this stuff to know if there are implications with
you giving permission to, say, Troll, to include code that is a derivative
work of Motif (as well as Qt), but it seems this would come up if the same
scenario is used with another license.  Regardless, if there would be a
legal problem with Troll using something that is a derivative work of
Motif, they can simply not use it.  3b doesn't REQUIRE them to include it
or anything silly, it simply requires you to extend a grant to them to do
so relative to your interests and rights in the modification.  It would of
course be their responsibility to wiegh the pros and cons of including such
and make a decision.

-- 
Jeremy Blosser   |   jblosser@firinn.org   |   http://jblosser.firinn.org/
-----------------+-------------------------+------------------------------
"Would you fight to the death, for that which you love?
                   In a cause surely hopeless ...for that which you love?"
                                             -- D. McKiernan, _Dragondoom_

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