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List:       kde-freeqt
Subject:    Re: [freeqt] hello, world
From:       "Adam J. Richter" <adam () yggdrasil ! com>
Date:       2000-04-05 1:16:43
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Rik Hemsley <rik@kde.org> writes:
>Seems no-one can be bothered anymore to think about rewriting Qt,
>seeing as there's not much point anymore.

	The problem with Qt is that its license is GPL incompatible.
Everyone who distributes a compiled version of KDE runs a big legal
liability against the chance that some KDE author with get mad any
time in the next 75 years, and sue them, claiming that they wrote
their software with the expectation that their code would be used
once either Troll changed their license or a GPL-compatible Qt clone
is released.

	Turning a blind eye toward certain legal liabilities because
a lot of people argued for what they wished the legal situation was
is a trap that a number of people in the internet developer community
(not just free software) have fallen into before.  So far, the results
have been little things where the result was not so bad, like the Linux
trademark, linux.com, Phil Zimmerman being arrested but then released
under massive public pressure, user interface copyright lawsuits, etc.
Everybody confidently argues for their wishful legal interpretation until
the axe falls, and then suddenly all of the talk on the net is about how
stupid the developers relying on that interpretation were and how
nobody really believed that interpretation anyhow.  It's no wonder that,
so far, I have not found anyone willing to indemnify Yggdrasil against
the Qt GPL incompatibility.

	I realize that a number of Linux vendors have chosen to take
the GPL copyright infringement risk with respect to shipping KDE and
other GPL'ed Qt software, like the risks that anyone who publishes
software lives with over various spurious software patents (although,
since it is copyright, I believe that resellers will be more easily
held liable too).  That is their prerogative, and perhaps they will
never be sued or the courts will accept that the "implicit grant" theory
or some other out applies to KDE under Qt.  However, I do not want
Yggdrasil's customers exposed in this way.  So, we will continue to
support the development of Harmony.

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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