[Qgis-psc] QGIS licence (was: QGIS on iOS was QGIS for Mobile (Android))

[Nyall Dawson]

On Thu, 17 Oct 2019 at 15:44, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> wrote:

> no need to be emotional on this, fully agreed.
> So if I if I understand it correctly you are suggesting to move to a
> BSD-like licence or an LGPL for part of it?

Actually - I'm proposing a discussion several levels before even
discussing a particular license :)

I'd like someone to research and write up a commissioned report on whether:

- it would be possible to relicense QGIS and what would be involved in
doing so (including which other projects have done this and how they
went about it)
- what the potential benefits and downsides of doing so would be.
- possible licenses we could investigate, and which of these would
make things like the iOS situation easier
- whether dependencies we already have would block any possibility of
relicensing
- how this would impact on the plugin scene (I could see there being
both huge benefits and disadvantages of relicensing for plugins)
- whether a potential CLA assigning code ownership to qgis.org would
be possible, and the advantages and disadvantages of this

I think this should be done by a trusted company or individual, and
ideally one well acquainted with the QGIS community yet with a history
of **impartiality** to topics which impact on this (like the ios
situation, or a history of antagonism toward non-GPL software). Only
after a report has been written by this individual/organisation, and
then tabled and accepted by the PSC, should it THEN be raised for
public discussion with the community, where **everyone** discussing
the issue can be fully informed of all sides of the debate **before**
the group discussion even begins!

Nyall

> Besides personal preferences
> and priorities, I believe this would be technically very difficult. We
> tried many years ago the same for GRASS, and it proved impossible,
> especially because of the code from developers disappeared form the radar.
> I should add that I'm hearing since years rumors of the type "it's free
> for now, be sure that when it will be very good you'll have to pay for
> it". I think that discussing about this will give credit to these
> rumors, and spread FUD around the project, so we have to be extra careful.
> I suggest discussing this in the next PSC.
> Cheers.
> --
> Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> QGIS.ORG Chair:
> http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
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