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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]