Re: [Tora-develop] License Restrictions

[Henrik J. <hp...@gl...>]

Qt is released under GPL (For X11 at least) and since the central 
filosophy of the GPL is that it places NO restrections on the use of the 
software EXCEPT that if you make derivatory work you must release it 
under GPL. The other licenses available are Qt Non Commercial which 
license is much simpler and besically just states:

   1. /You are as an individual granted a personal, non-exclusive
      non-transferable license, in a non-commercial setting, to develop
      application programs, reusable components and other software items
      that link with or in any other way require the Software. These
      items, when distributed, are subject to the following requirements: /
         1. /They must be distributed for free and/or be freely
            downloadable. /
         2. /You must ensure that all recipients of machine-executable
            forms of these items are also able to receive and use the
            complete machine-readable source code to the items without
            any charge beyond the costs of data transfer. /
         3. /You must explicitly license all recipients of your items to
            use and re-distribute original and modified versions of the
            items in both machine-executable and source code forms. The
            recipients must be able to do so without any charges
            whatsoever, and they must be able to re-distribute to anyone
            they choose. /

It doesn't really say anything about not being able to also use other 
libraries that are not free to develop the software or that you can use 
the endresult in a commercial setting as long as you don't also expose 
the Qt library for others to use. I mean you have to use Visual C++ to 
use the library and that wasn't free the last time I checked :). In the 
explanation (separate) you can also read:

/A non-commercial setting means that you must not use the package in the 
course of your employment or whilst engaged in activities that will be 
compensated. A non-commercial application is an application that cannot 
be sold, leased, rented or otherwise distributed for recompense./

The package in this case refers in this case the Qt library and the 
application to TOra. Since TOra can never be sold, leased and 
distributed for recompense since it is available under the GPL which 
places similar restrictions. As I said before the moment I want to 
charge a penny for the software I have to buy a commercial Qt license. 
Off course you as a user will not need to do so, also cut & pasting from 
the trolltech website:

//There are no royalties, run-time licenses or other additional costs./ 
You can distribute your Qt-based programs either statically or 
dynamically linked without any additional charges./

So I think I'm pretty covered?

/Mauritz
GlobeCom AB

John D. Gwinner wrote:

>>>What license is this. Is it the Qt Non Commercial? It must be since Qt
>>>
>normally is available under GPL.<<
>
>It looks like 'any' version.
>
>Normally I wouldn't have a problem with 'non commercial' code relying on
>the type of sales of a piece of software to drive the licensing; in
>other words if I'm charging for a piece of software, then I would expect
>to pay for the libraries that go into it.  I could understand a 'free'
>version not being available also.  
>
>However, in this case Qt is saying 'even if you GIVE away the software,
>if you are paid to USE the software, then you have to buy the developer
>license for Qt'.  That's a whole different ball game.  It could be
>completely open source, but you bet that I will be making a paycheck
>while USING the software.  I mean, I can't really use Tora while I'm
>sitting at home watching TV.
>
>As far as getting paid to work on Tora, I completely understand this - I
>myself have a lot of software that I *could* develop to make my life
>much easier, but get little or no time to work on such software.  This
>isn't my concern, and my hat's off to you Henrik.  My concern is that if
>I use the Qt 'free' libraries, I can't be paid to do any Oracle
>consulting.  That's way to restrictive.
>
>== John ==
>