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Grokking Re: "rescuing" code from the GPL



Shriramana Sharma wrote:
2. Y modifies this program to use Qt (under the GPL), creating 02-qt-nothirdvar.cpp, and distributes it under both the BSDL and GPL.

1)

Please explain how this is legal.

Qt is copyrighted by Trolltech. A license provides me rights that normally only the copyright owners have. Any permission the license does not provide me I do not have. I have permission to create a derivative work ("my work") only so long as I distribute it under the GPL.

Trolltech has not given me permission to distribute my work under the BSDL. The fact that I have also distributed my work under the GPL is immaterial. I cannot do something I don't have permission for. So how can I license my work under the BSDL at all?

2)

My intention in putting the work under the BSDL is, evidently:

"I am currently incapable of making this work Qt-independent. But if any programmer should come that makes this work Qt-independent, then the work may from then onwards be distributed under the BSDL."

But the question above stands. I can't license my work *as a whole* under the BSDL. GPL-v2 section 2 para 4 says:

"If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License,"

So should I say:

"This work as a whole is licensed under the GPL. This work or any part of it which is or can be modified to be Qt-independent may be distributed in such a Qt-independent form under the BSDL also".

Is such verbosity really necessary, or is it understood? If it would be illegal to say:

"This work as a whole is licensed under both the GPL and the BSDL"

then I may have no choice but to resort to such verbosity.

Further, in its Qt-dependent state, if I distribute a compiled form of
my work, then would it still be dual-licensed in that form? Or would it be *only* under the GPL? If yes, then does dual-licensing apply only to source forms?

Thanks for your patience,

Shriramana Sharma.



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