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Re: Mixing Licenses ... any hints needed


From: Alexander Terekhov
Subject: Re: Mixing Licenses ... any hints needed
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:56:37 +0200

Wolfdieter Schmidt wrote:
> 
> Newsgroup,
> 
> I am currently planning to write a program which uses Trolltech Qt 4.
> 
> And I will use the Qt4 - GPL version. So as I understand my code has to
> be GPL.

You understand it wrong. The FSF and Trolltech simply want you to believe
in their utterly moronic interpretation of the GPL and its legal effect, 
but you don't have to. License contracts are interpreted against the
licensors and overreaching unlawful terms simply trigger unenforceability 
and provide immunity to real infringers in court of law -- visit
<oslawblog.com/2004/11/gpl-and-compilations.html#c110563622217146108>.

> 
> No problem so far.

Uh. The FSF is on record telling to a federal judge in court of law that 
"In fact, the GPL itself rejects any automatic aggregation of software 
copyrights under the GPL simply because one program licensed under the 
GPL is distributed together  with another program that is not licensed 
under the GPL. In spite of your program's dependency on Trolltech Qt 4 
program, it is copyrighted solely by you. The Trolltech Qt 4 is just 
another program (the copyright law doesn't distinguish "programs" from 
"libraries"; a "program" under copyright law is "a set of statements or 
instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer...").

> 
> But like every modern GUI, I need icons, buttons and some tiny pictures.
> 
> Now the question is: Can these icons/pictures/graphics be licensed in
> any other way, can these graphics hold a copyright of some company? 

Yes, and yes.

>                                                                     Or
> am I forced to just use GPLed graphics?

No. 

regards,
alexander.


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