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Re: (Fwd) Re: [awansink@ke.com.au: Re: Isn't a kde version of abiw



On Sat, May 29, 1999 at 10:50:05AM +0300, Riku Voipio wrote:
>  On Fri, May 28, 1999 at 09:00:22PM -0400, Adam Di Carlo wrote:
> 
> > Um.. no... it's more like:
>  
> > developers to debian-legal: "Is the GPL compatible with QT?  I.e., is
> > it legal to link GPL'd code to QTv2?"
>  
> > Debian-legal to developers: "Not that we can see.  QT and GPL are
> > incompatible".
> 
> > I consider it a rather unfortunate side effect of the GPL that it is
> > so restrictive of what can link with it.  Ideally, for GPL v3, any
> > code which is DFSG free could be linked with GPL code.  Currently this
> > is not the case.
> 
> Why doesn't QTv2 fall under the "system" clause? Afterall, we know
> several GPL:d apps that link them on motif, for example ddd. 
> 

Motif apps can be compiled with lestif, and this is usually done when
creating the Debian packages. 

> to quote GPL:
> 
> "the source code distributed need not include
> anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
> form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
> operating system"
> 
> QTv2 will be normally distributed with OS, as it will be in the
> main. 

You're forgetting the last sentance of that paragraph, which reads
"...unless that component itself accompanies the executable."

Since the application using QTv2 in main would be on the same cdrom as QTv2
itself, this special exception is not permitted. In the past, I've suggested
a way to remedy this problem by putting a special exception in the license
declaration for the program as follows:

     GNU Hello World using Qt
     Copyright (C) 1999 Joe Programmer


     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
     under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
     Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
     option) any later version. 
 
     You may, at your option and for the purposes of distributing this
     program in object code or executable form under Section 3 of the GNU
     General Public License, assume that the Qt library (Copyright (c) Troll
     Tech, Norway) is normally distributed with the major components of the
     operating system on which the executable or object code runs. If you
     choose not to excercise this option, you may distribute this software
     only under the terms of the GNU General Public License and may remove
     this paragraph.
 
     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
     GNU General Public License for more details.

Note that the wording of the Qt exception is very carefully done. It enables
distribution with Qt (or another free but GPL incompatible library, if you
replace Qt with its name) while maintaining the ability to reuse the
program's code in other GPL'd software.

-- 
Brian Ristuccia
brianr@osiris.978.org
bristucc@nortelnetworks.com
bristucc@cs.uml.edu


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