[Interest] Interest Digest, Vol 75, Issue 5

[Jason H]

> Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2017 at 10:11 AM
> From: "Roland Hughes" <roland at logikalsolutions.com>
> To: interest at qt-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Interest] Interest Digest, Vol 75, Issue 5

> On 12/09/2017 08:21 AM,  Oliver Niebuhr wrote:
>>  I already contacted Digia directly and asked them this and other
>>  Questions. Also gave those and more Details. But the only answer after a
>>  few weeks was: "Thanks for contacting us. Please tell us what License
>>  you want to buy" etc. They seem to hate the Open Source Community as
>>  they never answer anything but instead you get contacted by a Sales
>>  Person. So they are not helpful at all. At least from my experience.
> Oliver,
> That has been the experience of EVERY ONE of my clients. When they contact Digia to ask about what is and is not OpenSource sales calls back to tell them even "Hello World" needs a commercial license. So, rather than be > a legitimate player in the OpenSource world, they attempt to be extortionists.
> One thing I have found rather impressive. When your client has a very significant law firm ask the EXACT question, words and all, suddenly sales responds "Go with God my child. You have my blessing."
> Adding insult to injury, when a noob happens upon the Qt Web site, it is almost impossible for them to find and download the OpenSource version. Yes, people on here have saved the links and pass them around, but go there with the eyes of a noob and try to find the OpenSource version without filling out some form asking for as much personal information as Google gathers on everyone daily...
 
> Oh, Oliver. The answer to your question depends on the size and reputation of the lawyers you have asking it. You, me and everyone else will all have sales continue telling us even "Hello World" needs a commercial license.

It's depends on how you want to distribute "Hello World", not the effort involved in creating it. In some scenarios, yes it requires a commercial license. Licenses are about distribution not creative effort.

FWIW, I've been pleased with the commercial offering, though frustrated at times (mainly with patches taking longer to land in mainline), but overall, the commercial support got me what I needed to get my software on the market and work correctly. 

There's a fantastic book you should read, "The Terrible Truth about Lawyers", written by a lawyer. It's great beach reading. Same kind of situation here with sales...