[Qt-interest] Legal question: Qt IOS static linking

[Thiago Macieira]

On Friday, 2 de September de 2011 18:53:47 Nicola Brisotto wrote:
> Hi,
> I would like to use Qt on Android and IOS at least for my applications
> business logic and basic networking.
> To submit an application to the App Store I need to statically link Qt LGPL.
> My main concerns are:
> 1) Will the app be approved by Apple?

You have to ask Apple, not us.

There were some problems before with the Mac App Store that Qt would touch 
config files that didn't belong to the application and this wasn't allowed. I 
don't remember if it's been fixed.

The static linking is not a criterion in qualification.

> 2) Is it legal to statically link Qt?

Yes.

> To answer the first question I can package an app and send it to the
> store. But to answer the second I need your help, I'm not I lawyer.

That was easy then. :-)

> Reading the qt-interest mailing list I’ve found this Thiago Macieira’s
> reply
> http://lists.qt.nokia.com/pipermail/qt-interest/2011-August/035172.html

Pfft. Clueless guy. :-)

> “You can statically link using the LGPL. But you must provide a way for the
> Qt in your application to be replaced. The easiest way to do that is to use
> dynamic linking, but you can always provide the .o for your application and
> a Makefile.”

> I suppose this means that there no legal problem to statically link an
> app with qt and publish on the apple store if I provide the .o,
> Makefile, etc. Is it right?

Right. You can also provide the sources under a redistributable license. 
That's even easier.

> PS: Does it any difference use a Qt commercial licence?

Yes. If you have a commercial license, you can use its terms instead of the 
LGPL terms.

-- 
Thiago Macieira - thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
   Software Architect - Intel Open Source Technology Center
      PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint:
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