Re: is kde and kde app source debian-legally distributable?
J.H.M. Dassen Ray" <jdassen@wi.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:
> (We're getting into the really hypothetical here, as Troll and KDE are
> working to make this discussion moot, but...)
In principle, yes. However,
> If I understand you correctly, you're saying something like "Putting
> KDE sources on a Debian FTP site is encouraging people to build
> binaries of them and redistribute these binaries, thus encouraging
> them to violate the license agreement enforced by KDE being GPLed".
Yes:
(1) The essence of our our package system is to make it easier for people
to build and install the programs.
(2) Last time I checked the kde web site, the only explicit instructions
they had to the effect that kde requires Qt was an error message from
./configure if the qt library wasn't available. We make much stronger
statements in our debian sources.
(3) KDE doesn't appear to distribute Qt at all -- we most likely would
be distributing Qt.
(4) A significant number of people use our software and wouldn't install
KDE if it wasn't available in our package format.
> This is too far-fetched for me to take seriously. By such a line
> of reasoning, putting binaries of "free for noncommerical use"
> software on the non-free section of a Debian site would be encouraging
> companies to use them. And, even more extreme, putting (source or
> binaries of) GPL-ed libraries on a Debian site could be construed as
> encouraging companies to violate the GPL on them.
I'm surprised by this paragraph -- either it's very obviously wrong or
I'm completely missing your point. I'll try responding based on what
I understand you to be saying:
Of course we're encouraging people to use the stuff we put on our sites.
In most cases that's not a problem.
If there are cases where that's a problem we should remove the offending
packages. I'm sure you know that KDE is a problem because of the current
Qt/GPL license conflict.
--
Raul
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