[Interest] Qt Creator licensing for companies with Qt Commercial developers

Tuukka Turunen tuukka.turunen at qt.io
Mon Mar 30 20:02:43 CEST 2020


Hi Andy,

I know that the dual licensing can be confusing. To defend it a bit: it gets confusing mainly when the question is about mixing the license types. It is simple and straightforward when a company uses commercial license and asks also possible contractors (working in the same project) to use commercial. Similarly it is simple when all use the open-source version.

If you want to understand the topic better, please read the commercial license agreement and the licensing FAQ. The restriction has nothing to do with open-source licensing. It is about a company, who is using a commercially licensed Qt not to use parts of the same licensed Qt product under open-source license. If there was no such restriction, a company could have a team of 10 developers, but only 1 or 2 commercial license for Qt.

I do understand that it can feel off to have such a restriction for using "Qt Creator" when others are using "Qt libraries". The important point is that both these are included in the Qt for Application Development product. So both need to be used with same type of license: open-source or commercial.

Yours,
                Tuukka


From: Andy <asmaloney at gmail.com>
Date: Monday 30. March 2020 at 20.50
To: Tuukka Turunen <tuukka.turunen at qt.io>
Cc: Giuseppe D'Angelo <giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com>, "interest at qt-project.org" <interest at qt-project.org>
Subject: Re: [Interest] Qt Creator licensing for companies with Qt Commercial developers

That makes no sense. Your license prevents a company from using an open-source tool? It says "if you license our stuff you cannot use the open-source tool X"?

This whole thread is yet another great example of where the Qt Company is totally tone-deaf.

Nobody understands your licensing. You have fewer people using Qt and Qt-based things because of this.

---
Andy Maloney  //  https://asmaloney.com
twitter ~ @asmaloney<https://twitter.com/asmaloney>



On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 1:43 PM Tuukka Turunen <tuukka.turunen at qt.io<mailto:tuukka.turunen at qt.io>> wrote:

Hi,

That is not the question that was originally asked.

The question was about some developers using commercially licensed “Qt for Application Development” product and other developers using Qt Creator under open-source license. This is not allowed, because the license agreement of Qt for Application Development does not allow use of open-source versions of its contents in the same project (and Qt Creator is part of Qt for Application Development).

Yours,

                Tuukka

From: Andy <asmaloney at gmail.com<mailto:asmaloney at gmail.com>>
Date: Friday 27. March 2020 at 17.29
To: Tuukka Turunen <tuukka.turunen at qt.io<mailto:tuukka.turunen at qt.io>>
Cc: Giuseppe D'Angelo <giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com<mailto:giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com>>, "interest at qt-project.org<mailto:interest at qt-project.org>" <interest at qt-project.org<mailto:interest at qt-project.org>>
Subject: Re: [Interest] Qt Creator licensing for companies with Qt Commercial developers

"This seems to become a longer thread than I envisioned, as apparently my original response was not clear enough."

As I pointed out - it's because you're not answering the question that was asked, and therefore confusing the issue.

"Is it still possible for the developers who don't use Qt libraries in any way, use Qt Creator IDE for editing and debugging?"

The answer is yes.

---
Andy Maloney  //  https://asmaloney.com
twitter ~ @asmaloney<https://twitter.com/asmaloney>



On Fri, Mar 27, 2020 at 11:23 AM Tuukka Turunen <tuukka.turunen at qt.io<mailto:tuukka.turunen at qt.io>> wrote:

Hi,

This seems to become a longer thread than I envisioned, as apparently my original response was not clear enough.

In general, if there are any questions or concerns related to licensing, check the FAQ: https://www.qt.io/faq/

If you are looking for advise on licensing, I recommend either to read the FAQ or consult a lawyer. While everyone here tries their best to give good advice, it is possible that some incorrect information or interpretation is presented (because licensing can be a difficult topic).

Anyways, I'll now explain again the answer to the original question asked. The question was, as I understood it, "Is it allowed that people working in a project use commercially licensed Qt and some other persons in the same project who do not develop Qt use open-source licensed Qt tools?"

Answer to this is: No, it is not allowed to mix commercial "Licensed Software" and the open-source versions provided by The Qt Company in the same project.

This is a restriction coming from the commercial license agreement: https://www.qt.io/terms-conditions/

The basic rule of thumb is: Don't mix. Use either only commercial or only open-source versions of items provided by The Qt Company.

Yours,

        Tuukka

On 27.3.2020, 16.26, "Interest on behalf of Giuseppe D'Angelo via Interest" <interest-bounces at qt-project.org<mailto:interest-bounces at qt-project.org> on behalf of interest at qt-project.org<mailto:interest at qt-project.org>> wrote:

    On 27/03/2020 15:03, Tomas Konir wrote:
    >
    > Sorry for possible misunderstanding, but i think, that original question
    > was little different.
    > Question was:
    >
    > There is company, where are two developer groups:
    > Group1: Use QtCreator and works with QT libraries (and works with other
    > code which not use QT libraries). All users have Commercial License.
    > Group2: Would like to use QtCreator and not use QT libraries (they
    > working only with QT unrelated code). The want use QtCreator only as IDE
    >
    > Can both groups use QtCreator?
    > I thought, that using QtCreator as IDE is not conditioned with having QT
    > Commercial license.

    The only difference that comes to mind is that the first group can use
    Qt Creator under its commercial license, which may come with some extra
    features (not exactly sure of which ones, at this particular point in time).

    The second group can instead just use Qt Creator under its open source
    license. The open source license of Qt Creator itself does NOT extend in
    any way to the software you develop (cf. the GPL FAQ).

    HTH,
    --
    Giuseppe D'Angelo | giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com<mailto:giuseppe.dangelo at kdab.com> | Senior Software Engineer
    KDAB (France) S.A.S., a KDAB Group company
    Tel. France +33 (0)4 90 84 08 53, http://www.kdab.com
    KDAB - The Qt, C++ and OpenGL Experts



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