Re: GPL3 code in KDE?

A Divendres, 1 de gener de 2010, John Layt va escriure:
> I've noticed an increasing amount of code in KDE svn being highlighted by
> Krazy (1) as being GPL3+ only which is against the KDE Licensing Policies
>  (2).
> 
> Before I go put my foot in it by nagging people to change the license, I
> thought I should check why this rule is in place so I can explain to them. 
>  I had thought it was something to do with Qt compatibility, but that makes
>  no sense since Qt went GPL3+ and then LGPL2.1+ (3).
> 
> Is this rule still needed, or is our policy simply to remain 100% GPL2
> compatible until the ev decides to migrate to GPL3, i.e. to prevent GPL3 by
> stealth?

AFAIR it was because not all other libraries etc we use are GPL3 compatible so 
staying GPL2+ is the safest way to go, but i might be wrong.

Anyway the fact that the rule is not needed anymore doesn't mean the rule is 
not in place. We have a rule and you have to follow it, if you disagree with 
it, talk to change it, but to not ignore it.

> 
> Also, the libraries policy is for LGPL+ (or BSD or MIT or X11).  A few
>  small executables and scripts exist in the libraries under GPL licenses
>  and would never be linked against.  Do we want/need to make these LGPL as
>  well?

As far as i know no, the text of the policy says "Source files that are part 
of a library with a public API which is part of the KDE Platform" these code 
you mention is not part of a library with public API.

Albert

> 
> Cheers!
> 
> John.
> 
> (1) http://www.englishbreakfastnetwork.org/
> (2) http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy
> (3) http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AllCompatibility
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