Hi, Very interesting question indeed, but I do not understand your two links: - The first one is a very simple license with no links and no "branching", I do not see any mess - The second one (EA) has only dead links
Cheers, Etienne 2014-04-02 4:46 GMT+02:00 Jonas Thiem <jonasth...@googlemail.com>: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Hi *, > > I checked the Qt licensing a bit: > http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/legal-easing.html > Short conclusion: it is complex. > > > Now I see the following problem (keep in mind IANAL): > > Any application linking to Qt falls under "work that uses the > Library", no matter if it ships with Qt or not, specified in the LGPL > 2.1 used for Qt 4.8. (unless I am mistaken of course) > > This means each program needs to (again assuming I'm newbishly reading > correctly): > * display prominently they use LGPL-licensed Qt > * link to the full LGPL license (no matter if it's hidden in whatever > folder Qt/Licenses of the Qt install on whatever place of the disk) > > Also, any other of the TONS of licenses Qt uses may or may not require > us to do similar things. (all the Apple contributions and more) > > But who has the time to read all them? > > Big companies like EA do. They have their lawyers to compile all the > licenses: http://gpl.ea.com/qtlicense.html > > Surprisingly, most smaller open-source devs don't or aren't aware. > > What does that mean? Most Qt programs probably violate Qt's LGPL terms > and probably others by missing out on displaying information they > should display. Only the big commercial players will actually comply, > and the actual open-source devs will have trouble reading up on what > they actually need to embed and display to the user for a simple Qt > program that doesn't even ship or install Qt. > > > Now if I look at http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/legal-easing.html I > can easily understand why. The page is a mess! > > Why is there no single text file with all required licensing > information which I can simply slap into my About dialog? Or do I need > to hire a lawyer first or manually check all licenses that may require > me to display them or Copyright or whatever in my about dialog, so I > can actually comply with them? > > Some more guidance on what an open-source dev linking to Qt legally > needs to display would really help. (e.g. to start with, a SINGLE FILE > assembling all copyright notices + licenses). > > Regards, > Jonas Thiem > > PS: Sorry for mailing this if all of what I said is false. Again I am > not a lawyer, I am just guessing from casually reading the LGPL > license that the display of stuff is needed. But if it is, it could > really help if Qt/Digia bothered to assemble a slap in and forget file > which has all the stuff that legally needs to be displayed. (that huge > nested HTML page isn't really suitable for embedding into an application!) > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1 > > iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJTO3oRAAoJEBIDTbbx8YkeQFMP/3JzTxZDtVf3FxnSeW8DCzPQ > WmZ0ViaBPUbuUVhpB0DlVmTGuDAZ5EN76NoxQ7waF7MEjkpIDoSShT42ctYiVQJ8 > 4dSUj2trzWv0CODuO91R6Ajj/MK0+JXcQzD0HvBKrvGXYPiRDAY2sgR6/qLuDGtz > fesKCb5bl2BMoKnD33BSxwNpEQMR9jRSzaOgPUdEx+rhYEYqKTJed5WByVJ08roG > Oe2nnrucmD20KOtXnBAMd1Q/wNNnauaS0k6BwNyyPpZCD4dgbSFtyjcCQEWtsZUY > Do7BDzREV285GYMbM2pWpLVDs9tdFrfwPN5txRZBl8ijVIR1uCHI8ecg/t1BizDG > 4RwaAdHaVl1a+prnl9PcD0DJ/RZ43AgBqbT91IRJe/jZwe/NMxnIBB13j8grAv/s > aTWjmKqmSSmSIP7vTmbmSD7obYEGO2tWXZDkcprmNMKn4wbWswhqQunNzgiGwPT6 > 4hwscgP5cdpapapL+syDcYHlt3E/ZrsqqmaL4laUGPp9ZytBxIxFbwAmgOrY0/qZ > 4zYgYYiYAA45S2ZOr916XPolAkD5eAf8i22mtp7dxH3NGsZITF8e5DdQ0VmGhryv > wfC2xURopCVni4af9KzjX0MdfVaGblVfMma6OJeoWuAcMIX6qQKz1Mws2FZXUrU2 > 2ecyw82lJjQm8u9puxlX > =QRAS > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Interest mailing list > Interest@qt-project.org > http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/interest >
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