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List:       kde-licensing
Subject:    Re: RMS,Debian and KDE
From:       mosfet <mosfet () mandrakesoft ! com>
Date:       2000-06-21 20:20:21
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Peter S Galbraith wrote:
> 
> mosfet wrote:
> 
> > Requiring license changes that have no legal basis then calling KDE
> > illegal does not help on my end ;-)
> 
> This RMS agreeing with `implicit intent' is a new twist that
> wasn't present months ago.  I hope this can be clarified to
> everyone's satisfaction.  I would be happy with such outcome with
> reservations described below.
> 
> My only fear in such a big project using an implicit clause with
> the GPL would be to later find that some developers have recycled
> other GPLed code without permission.  That would put the project
> in legal limbo just as now.  That reason alone should be enough
> cause for KDE developers to use the Qt exception clause for any
> future code.  Wouldn't it?
> 

No, absolutely not. I personally won't accept a situation where we have
to tell all the people hacking KDE apps for fun and to improve Linux
that they have to modify their licenses just for Debian's sake. Again,
this is not fair to KDE and the free software developers, nor has it a
legal basis.

This issue seems mostly based on mistrust on Debian's part. If code is
copyrighted by someone the original developer maintains that copyright.
If code comes from a third party the original copyright will still be
there, even if it's used elsewhere. Nobody - KDE or not - should be
removing anyone's copyright statement.

> Peter

-- 
Daniel M. Duley - Unix developer & sys admin.
http://www.mosfet.org - The place for KDE development news.
mosfet@mandrakesoft.com
mosfet@kde.org

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