Re: KDE not in Debian?
On Tue, Feb 01, 2000 at 10:07:37AM -0800, David Johnson wrote:
> Section 6c, which talks about giving a copy to Troll Tech, only applies
> to section 6, which is concerned with distribution. Basically, if and
> only if you distribute such a program, then Troll Tech also gets a copy
> if they ask. The QPL is completely silent on personal uses, disallows
> "private" distributions, and is hunky-dory with public distributions.
In my opinion, the biggest conflict isn't 6c (though 6c could be a
problem to someone doing a local distribution in a "third-world" country).
The biggest conflict is the combination of 3b and 4c. 3b says that Qt
is proprietary to Troll (they own the code and can re-release it under
any license whatsoever). 4c makes 3b a restriction on distribution.
So, if I take someone else's GPLed code, and add it to Qt, I have to
re-release it under terms that say that Troll can re-release it under
non-GPLed terms.
Obviously this is impossible.
Which means that the GPL prohibits distribution of programs which are
built from GPL+QPL sources.
When thinking about clauses like GPL's Section 2, or QPL's Section 4 you
need to be thinking in terms of transitive closure. If this closure is
inconsistent with itself (requires you to do something which another
license on the same work forbids) then the license combination can't
be satisfied. [And, for the GPL, the handler for this case is that the
original distribution is forbidden.]
--
Raul
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