Qt licensing statement
muesli opened this issue · comments
Your README mentiosn Qt not being open source. This is incorrect as Qt is LGPL licensed. Also note the official spelling "Qt" (the all uppercase variant is usually associated with QuickTime).
I'm trying to be slightly careful because If I'm honest I find the Qt license a complicated one. I think:
If ur work is open source then u can use Qt fine. If your work is not open source but u dynamically link to Qt, fine. If u statically compile, but open source your work, fine. If u statically compile and charge for ur work, then u need a commercial license.
That's my understanding, don't quote me in court on it, but if u learn something new, please let me know!
Will fix casing, thanks!
I don't think there's anything particular special about the Qt licensing, you'll have to stick to the LGPL just as you have to with any other dependency released under that license.
The examples you gave also apply to any other LGPL dependency (e.g. therecipe/qt), too.
For more info: https://www1.qt.io/qt-licensing-terms/
I guess the confusion stems from Qt's licensing being a bit more complicated ~10y ago.
Ok, so as long as you understand the LGPL then there is no need for me to mention it. Yep, OK I'll update to just mention that its LGPL rather than open source - straight up open source suggests you can do whatever you want!
Updating readme now
Awesome! Also note, that currently static linking with therecipe/qt isn't technically feasible anyway, so I guess you and your readers are on the safe side here.
What makes you say that? I've compiled a statically linked app using therecipe/qt the docker containers
Hah, I take it back, it looks like that is "fixed" by now. It used to be a fairly hacky / painful process. Notes: therecipe/qt#230
Oh yeah docker makes it a dream! :)
I found this, it seems to be a good way to think about the licensing for Qt apps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8760076/commercial-application-using-qt
FYI updated the readme
I guess we can close this one then?