[Qgis-developer] import proprietary code inside a python plugin

[Tim Sutton]

Hi

On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 1:02 PM, Vincent Picavet
<vincent.ml at oslandia.com> wrote:
> Hi Giovanni,
>
> Le lundi 26 mars 2012 12:45:39, G. Allegri a écrit :
>> I had to create a python plugin to obatin some interactions with the ESRI
>> ArcGIS Geoprocessing python framework. To do that, I need to import ESRI's
>> libraries in my plugin, which are clearly not GLP'd :)
>> Following a previous thread on this topic, I wonder if it's legal from the
>> side of QGis (obviously it is ok from the ArcGIS's side having a licence
>> for it).
>
> From my point of view, after researches about this specific issue, you can't
> legally :
> http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/19646/issues-with-osgeo-qgis-core-and-
> arcpy-modules/19661#19661
>
> GPL is a copyleft licence, therefore «contamining» other libraries. All
> software piece which is linked to a GPL library must have a licence compatible
> with GPL.
> An python «import» is considered as a link.
>
> I would advise you to change your software to adopt a loose coupling strategy
> between the qgis part and the esri part, either through web services, data
> exchange over a file or a database or something else not considered as a link
> in the GPL sense.
>
> I personnaly consider that libraries should not be under a GPL licence but a
> LGPL one, which keeps the opensource aspect while facilitating mixing with
> other softwares. GPL is fine with end user software built on top of LGPL libs.
> That said, it would require to relicence all qgis source code as LGPL with all
> contributors agreeing to the change.

I don't think this will happen soon both for logistical reasons and
philosophical - many of us who have contributed code to the project
would object to the license switch.

Regards

Tim


> And this is only my personal view, I do not want to start a licence troll
> thread.
>
> Vincent
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