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Status of KDE/Qt - interim decision



I have just spoken to Brian White.  We've decided to:

(a) Make the official CD containing KDE (because it's in contrib) but
not Qt (that's in non-free).  This represents a `no action' from the
status quo.

(b) Decide on a more relaxed timescale what to do about the possible
copyright violation in distributing KDE and Qt `together' on our FTP
site.

Let me explain:

The relevant paragraph of the GPL, ie s.2, 3nd-to-last para, starting
   These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.
says it's only a copyright violation not to distribute all the parts
of something under the GPL if we
  distribute the [parts] as part of a whole which is a work
  based on [a GPL'd program]
and not if we distribute them
  as separate works.

Clearly a CD-ROM which contains only KDE and not Qt is not
distributing them `as part of a whole'.

However, the situation on our FTP site is rather more confused.  Where
does the boundary lie between the aggregation of the thousands of
packages into a distribution (which doesn't form a `whole which is a
work based on [GPL'd programs]'), and the close interdependency
between KDE and Qt ?  Is the political boundary between contrib and
non-free sufficient to make this distribution `as separate works' ?

We need to decide this question, and I think this would need a
copyright lawyer.

However, I think that under the circumstances we do not need to cut
KDE/Qt the `slack' involved.  We should stick true to our free
software principles, and not allow non-free software to place us at
risk.

So, we should remove either KDE or Qt (so that we are not distributing
them as `a whole work').  Given this, I feel that we should remove Qt
from our distribution.

However, I'm willing to listen to opinions.

Brian is away for a while, and I think this decision needs to be made
before he gets back.  We have essentially the following options, I
think:

 1. Get cast-iron permission from _every_ developer who has
contributed towards any purportedly-GPL'd KDE code, to allow their
code to be distributed together with Qt notwithstanding the GPL.

 2. Remove KDE from contrib.

 3. Remove Qt, completely, or perhaps to a separate
non-auto-installable archive.

 4. Consult a lawyer in the hope that they'll assure us we're OK.
People who want us to take this option should first find a lawyer
willing to help us pro bono.  I would oppose any attempt to spend
money sorting out KDE's mess.

-- 
Ian Jackson, at home.           Local/personal: ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk
ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk         http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ijackson/


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