About Trolltech QT OpenSource license.

Jarek Zgoda jzgoda at o2.usun.pl
Tue Apr 10 16:23:21 EDT 2007


king kikapu napisał(a):

> I saw at the forum here that a lot of debate is coming from the
> "strange" interpretation of it's Open Source Edition lisence.
> After a lot of reading i was under the impression (and many others
> with me) that even a stand alone developer working in-house at company
> cannot use Qt OS Edition and must buy the commercial lisence.

This is a bullsh*t. Qt is free (as in "free speech") on GPL. Nothing
stops you from using it in any commercial project if only it fits the
licensing terms (i.o.w. it's free software). This specially applies to
inhouse development, as in such case there's no "distribution".

> I sent an emai to them today and i think their response is
> interesting, so i appose it here;
> 
> #####################################################
> Thank you for your inquiry regarding the Qt Open Source Edition.
> 
> The open source edition may be used for either your own private use or
> for an application used only internally by your company if the
> application is developed by you on company time.  With internal
> company use under the GPL it is absolutely imperative that the
> application not be distributed outside of the legal entity.  If this
> happens then the GPL source distribution requirements (as well as all
> other GPL
> requirements) will take effect.  The internal use by the company falls
> under the "private modification" exception to the GPL.
> 
> Please note that if you begin your application development with the
> GPL version, that application must be GPL licensed and Trolltech does
> not permit developers to start with the Qt Open Source Edition and
> later convert to a commercial license.
> 
> Good luck with your development and please contact sales at trolltech.com
> if your company wishes to purchase a commercial Qt license at some
> point in the future.

Hey, there's no such statement here. Where did you get this "must buy
the commercial lisence"?

Plus, this (sales)person forgot to state clearly, that GPL covers only
distribution, not the cost of software. If you manage to get some hot
cash for selling sources of your GPL-ed program, the license would not
try to stop you from doing that. ;)

-- 
Jarek Zgoda
http://jpa.berlios.de/



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