From kde-licensing Sat Aug 19 01:49:56 2000 From: Kevin Forge Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 01:49:56 +0000 To: kde-licensing Subject: Re: QT Designer _NOT_ under QPL. X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-licensing&m=96665351631189 Peter S Galbraith wrote: > > mosfet wrote: > > > Peter S Galbraith wrote: > > > Here's an idea. They could ask RMS and the FSF lawyers if they > > > are happy with it before they make it final. No, that would be > > > too easy. > > > > They already are. Troll Tech is putting a lot of effort into trying to > > work with RMS in order to get something compatible, but the general > > impression is the only license that will be publically supported is the > > GPL itself, even if it's legally compatible. > > If the FSF says it's GPL-compatible, then it will surely be publically > accepted. Exactly why they are talking to RMS. > > From what I know of Troll Tech is willing to put Qt under the GPL but > > they need to be assured that commercial companies won't take their code > > (and believe me they have reasons to fear this, although I'm not going > > to describe details). While the GPL is supposed to prevent this, both > > Troll Tech's lawyers and Lineo's have reviewed the GPL and found that > > legally this is highly debatable. This isn't something that just TT has > > to worry about, it's a problem with anyone making a GPL library. > > I don't know of any problems with the GPL wrt use for libraries. > Why is it different than for applications? The GPL dose not govern use. Dynamically linking to a library is using it rather than deriving from it. This caries some waste when you realize that being linked to is the sole purpose of a library. > > Thus from what I am aware of Troll Tech is talking to RMS and hoping the > > next version of the GPL gives them the protection needed from this type > > of thing in a binding way. If it does they would switch to that. In the > > meantime they have to use varients of the QPL. > > Putting designer under the GPL and telling the world they use the > GPL to license their Qt-linked apps won't help Troll get on RMS' > good side. They appear to prefer the defiant approach. Actually Troll didn't say a damned thing. I did.