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Re: Trolltech GPL violation?



On Sun, Jan 01, 2006 at 03:24:30AM -0800, halbtaxabo-debml@yahoo.com wrote:
> Trolltech releases the "Open Source Edition" of Qt
> under the GPL. The complete package downloadable from
> their website includes the libraries, tools like
> qtdesigner, and documentation in .html format. Source
> code for the libraries and tools is provided.

> However, no source code is provided for the .html
> documentation files.

> The GPL is explicit on the definition of source code:
> "The source code for a work means the preferred form
> of the work for making modifications to it." The term
> "source code" has a precise meaning within the GPL,
> which differs slightly from the everyday use of the
> term. The html files are not source code as the term
> is used in the GPL license, because the documentation
> is maintained in a different form, and converted to
> html. Html files, while human-readable, are extremely
> inconvenient to modify. They are certainly not the
> "preferred form" for making modifications.

Er... huh?  There is lots of material in the world that is maintained in
HTML as the source format.  How do you know what the source form is for this
documentation if that source form has not been distributed to us?

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/

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