Hi mailing list, I suggested this before, but there wasn't much feedback on it. (except for a vague "maybe not an entirely bad idea") I'll write this down as a dedicated mail so it doesn't get lost.
PROBLEM: The licensing information for Qt 4.8 (still in use through PySide) and Qt 5.x regarding all the copyright and license stuff that NEED to be in an application's about dialog to fulfill legal needs (so that's important to know) is hard to collect. License texts and info that is probably legally required to be required in every Qt application (or not - I'm not a lawyer) is spread across those pages and probably even more: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/licenses.html http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/3rdparty.html http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/lgpl.html http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/pdf-licensing.html ... They are all linked from http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/licensing.html (hopefuly??) but still you'd need to visit every single sub page, and copy all the stuff there. To make matters even worse, it's all HTML with the whole Qt page layout around, so not in any format that would it make easy to copy for an about dialog. As an additional issue, http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/3rdparty.html kind of suggests it is the only list required to be shown apart from the Qt LGPL (since everyone knows Qt is LGPL and those are apparently all third-parties it uses, right?). However, that is NOT the case I think, so in addition it's NOT obvious to the average dev which page contains really everything that should be included. (Suggested) SOLUTION: 1.) Provide one single text file (or simple HTML without any styling or navigation around it) with ALL of the license stuff of EVERYTHING used in Qt, including the LGPL and GPL itself in full length. 2.) Link it from an easy to find place on the website (e.g. from http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/licensing.html right before the table containing the HTML versions for regular online reading) with the hint that it contains all the stuff linked below for regular reading in one single culminated file. There is no need to claim it would cover everything required for legal reasons, no need for a legal guarantee of suitability or anything, no need for an advise that it is all an about dialog needs to show. (since it was previously stressed this needs to happen in a way that in no way suggests to be a legal advise e.g. to how an about dialog needs to look like for legal reasons) Instead, I suggest you name it "downloadable text-only culmination of all license info in single document (of the online reading versions linked in table below)" or similar - people who are looking for this will then most likely know this is what they want. So far, only big companies like EA (their Origin DRM beast uses Qt) seem to actually go through the trouble to collect all the info as required - not really surprising I'd say given the current confusing Qt website info on it. Please help making the average dev's live easier by considering this suggestion for the Qt website. Thanks! Regards, Jonas Thiem PS: Are people who could possibly implement this change on the website on this mailing list? Or would I be better off somehow forwarding this to the Digia website team or something? _______________________________________________ Interest mailing list Interest@qt-project.org http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/interest