[kde-community] Request to join the Kde incubator for GCompris

[Olaf Schmidt-Wischhöfer]

Laszlo Papp:
> However, I think the topic is quite complex, and I do not think geek
> consensus should decide here. It would be better to involve the KDE/Qt
> foundation, too, because they might have more clear idea about it what
> it means to KDE.

Since you probably mean the KDE Free Qt Foundation I will chime in here.

Our agreements with Nokia and Digia guarantee that Qt is released under both 
LGPL v 2.1 and GPL v 3. This has the advantage (for us) that the patent 
clauses of GPL v 3 are explicitly confirmed by Nokia and now Digia.

The agreements require us to „license a substantial and material part […] of 
the KDE libraries“ (defined as kdelibs and successors) and of the „major KDE 
Software Packages“ (defined as kdeadmin, kdebase, kdegames, kdegraphics, 
kdenetwork, kdepim, kdeutils and successors)  „under an Open Source License“ 
(using the OSI definition).

Conclusion: From the perspective of the KDE Free Qt Foundation, I see no 
problems with using GPL v 3 for KDE applications.

We might run into problems, however, if we start a trend of making exceptions 
to our Licensing Policy. We would want to ensure that these exceptions are 
still using OSI-approved licenses, and that we do not run into software 
licensing conflicts.

I would therefore suggest to update our Licensing policy rather than allowing 
an exception.

Best regards, Olaf

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Olaf Schmidt Wischhöfer
Board member, KDE Free Qt Foundation