[Interest] Qt 4.8 (and Qt 5 too?) really need a digested file of to-be-shown copyright, licensing information

[Etienne Sandré-Chardonnal]

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 <jonasthiem at googlemail.com>:

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> 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!)
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