From: J. K. <jk...@vi...> - 2004-11-05 17:44:33
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Ah, but you are changing the license. You are starting the user is not able to compile and distribute that copy--- where as paragraph 3 directly states the user may "copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2" with the additional restriction of including all source, or pointers to. Paragraph 3 does NOT address, not I believe allow distribution of an executable version against libraries you do not own or are not GPL'ed. Again, here is your boilerplate: * Specifically you are not permitted to link this program with the * Qt/UNIX, Qt/Windows or Qt Non Commercial products of TrollTech. * And you are not permitted to distribute binaries compiled against * these libraries without written consent from Quest Software, Inc. * Observe that this does not disallow linking to the Qt Free Edition. By stating 'you are not permitted to link...' you are taking away the rights of the user to link, which would directly contradict paragraph 3 which says the user can not only link, but also distribute. Again though, because paragraph 3 does not address the commerical nature of Qt's license (say for Qt/Windows), the user is not able to distribute versions linked with the commerical Qt libraries, not because you state so, but because of the license on the Qt libraries themselves. Unless, of course the user linked against versions of the Qt libraries that would allow distribution. Qt's license is considered seperate from the license of TOra as it is a seperate library, and therefore is able to restrict linking on it's own. But that is not the issue here--- here you are attempting to restrict linking against particular outside libraries, and that is changing the nature of the license. Therefore, the first section is not allowed as it's changing the nature of the GPL. Second sentence--- follows the first and is not allowed as you are restricting the users rights to compile and distribute. This is in direct violation of the 3rd paragraph which directly states the user is able to compile and distribute. You are unable which again is forbidden as stated in the GPL. In fact, doesn't your first statement below go directly against the first line of your boilerplate? And, just to clarify, I'm not arguing the point about whether a user can compile against Qt/Windows and distribute-- that is clearly covered in Qt/Window's license (as not allowed), but I do take issue with the 'global' statements contained within the boilerplate and I believe, at face value, they are misleading at best. TOra was GPL'ed, plain and simple. And in fact, now that I think about it, if you were able to purchase a commerical license of Qt/Windows and compile and distribute (with registration obviously, and with agreement with Trolltech), why could not someone else? -J On Fri, 5 Nov 2004, Henrik (Mauritz) Johnson wrote: > You are correct regarding it's not posible to restrict you from > compiling the sourcecode and linking it with any libraries you have > purchased, commercial or not. However, you are not allowed to > redestribute the resulting binaries. And again, I am not changing the > license in any way. The lines in the header simply clarify the way I and > Quest interprets paragraph 3 of the GPL. So, yes anyone can actually > still use their purchased copy of Qt to compile their own windows binary > of TOra, but in that case you still need to shell out around $3000 for > the environment to do this compile (For Visual Studio and Qt/Windows) > and you are not allowed to redestribute the resulting binary to other users. > > /Henrik > Quest Software > |