cgal (libcgal-dev) bizarre licensing

[Miles Bader <miles.bader@necel.com>]

libcgal-dev looks really handy

... but then on the website (www.cgal.org) I noticed it uses the
obnoxious[1] "QPL" license, so I thought "oh I can't use it with my
(GPL) app."

... but then I noticed some parts of cgal actually use the LGPL,
including the functionality I want to use (surface subdivision), so I
thought "oh maybe I can!"

... but then I noticed surface subdivision depends on lower-level
abstractions which are QPL licensed!  [2]

At this point I began thinking "It appears as if the authors were on
drugs when writing this library; maybe it's not such a good idea after
all..."

So ... can anyone clue me in?  Is the licensing of cgal really this
contorted?  Is the QPL really as obnoxious as it looks?  Does anyone
actually use this stuff?  Were the authors really on drugs when writing
it?

Thanks,

-Miles


[1] GPL incompatible, bizarro restrictions on source distribution

[2] I guess, strictly speaking it doesn't actually _depend_ on the
lower-level stuff, as the types used are template parameterized -- but
the types in question are non-trivial enough that it appears kind of
annoying to supply an equivalent non-QPL implementation.

-- 
=====
(^o^;
(()))
*This is the cute octopus virus, please copy it into your sig so it can spread.