License and copyright iussues (was: qwindowxpstyle.cpp)

[Chris January]

Andreas raises a valid point about this file.
If this is an original file written by someone outside of Trolltech and you
wish to license it to kde-cygwin under the GPL license then can the original
author please re-submit the file with an appropriate copyright notice
(including their name) and license terms. Otherwise the file will need to be
removed from CVS.

Futhermore many files with _win.cpp extensions also have a (C) Copyright
Trolltech notice when they are in fact either completely original works by
another author or only portions are copyright Trolltech. The problem with
this is is becomes difficult to ascertain the true author should any dispute
arise with Trolltech in the future. It could be construed that the author(s)
have implicitly assigned copyright to Trolltech which cannot be the case if
we distribute them under the GPL (since Trolltech presumably have not
licensed those files under the GPL themselves).

In conclusion:
If you have contributed to any file in qt-win32 then please add an
appropriate copyright notice to the file. We also need to remove any
erroneous notices that suggest Trolltech have copyright in a file when they
do not. The files from Wolfpack all have Trolltech copyright notices but
they are not written (wholely) by Trolltech. It would be prudent to add a
notice to these files to indicate their true origin.

Futhermore I myself am not happy allowing files in qt-win32 to be used in
non-GPL applications by Trolltech commercial licensees and I believe that
the clauses permitting this should be removed from the qt-win32 files.

Feel free to add your own opinons and comments - I think it would be good to
come to a general consensus about licensing and my own opinions should not
be given to much weight since I have been rather inactive of late.

Chris January

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