Ben Finney wrote: >> It is a novel interpretation of the GPL. Qt Software have every >> right to impose this sort of condition, but it makes me want to >> avoid them. > > No, they have no such right to interpret the GPL this way; it would be > entirely incompatible with the GPL since it would be an imposition of > additional restrictions, resulting in work that could not legally be > redistributed at all.
Thay aren't claiming that Qt itself is governed by the GPL, what they are claiming is that the 'Qt Open Source License' permits you to use it for development of "Open Source software governed by the GNU General Public License versions 2 and 3". I believe they can make whatever conditions they like for their own license. The GPL doesn't actually say you cannot redistribute work which adds additional restrictions. It says "If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a further restriction, you may remove that term." > In fact, I don't think they are making such an interpretation, though > their poorly-worded web page that you quoted certainly encourages > readers to make such a false interpretation. It looks very much to me as though they are trying to make that interpretation, it is repeated in a variety of forms across the website. But it doesn't really matter whether they can make it stick or not, I simply choose to avoid worrying about the issue by choosing another platform where possible. (Which is a shame really as the small amount of playing I did with Qt indicates it to be a very nice platform.) The license itself says: "This means that you cannot use a Qt Open Source Edition if your software must be built with any modules that impose conditions on you that contradict the conditions of the GNU GPL, including, but not limited to, software patents, commercial license agreements, copyrighted interface definitions or any sort of non-disclosure agreement (NDA). In these circumstances you must use a commercial edition of Qt." That I guess taken literally that means you cannot use Qt Open Source Edition if your software uses Qt Open Source Edition. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
