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

Thu Oct 17 02:13:55 PDT 2019

Hi again,

There is one more difference between QGIS and companies like Mongo or Redis
Labs.

With Mongo or Redis, one single company dominates development - and most
likely also decisions around the project.

With QGIS we are in the much, much better situation, that no single company
dominates development and decisions. And I do hope that it stays like this
for many years to come.

Andreas

On Thu, 17 Oct 2019 at 08:57, Nyall Dawson <nyall.dawson at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Oct 2019 at 16:42, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Nyall,
> >
> > I doubt that an "unbiased" company/organization/person even exists on
> this planet, when it comes to licenses, just as people have a precedence
> for political views and parties. Disclaimer: I am personally certainly not
> unbiased, regarding this matter.
> >
> > But before even starting on asking someone to dive into the topic, I
> would like to know the reasons why we need to discuss a license change?
> >
> > Is iOS the only reason? If yes, others have pointed out that alternative
> app stores exist. If we offer QGIS on iOS, we could publish it in an
> alternative app store, write some small page explaining how it works and
> the problem should be solved? It is certainly acceptable for someone to do
> these 2-3 extra clicks in order to get a free QGIS mobile for their Apple
> mobile? I am sure our users would understand this situation, if we explain
> in 2-3 sentences why we have to do this: license incompatibilities that
> aren't easy (or maybe not even possible?) to solve.
>
> While it's been the trigger of the current round of discussion, It's
> certainly not the only factor at play. For instance, I know the GPL
> requirement on QGIS plugins has been a sticking point for some in the
> past.
>
> I think there's also a need to discuss licensing from a
> risk-management perspective.There's a reasonable post published
> yesterday on this topic over at ars technica:
>
> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/is-the-software-world-taking-too-much-from-the-open-source-community/
> ,
> which covers some of the same territory as Paul Ramsey's recent
> keynotes have done (but arguably Paul's versions are better researched
> and more eloquent). The face of open-source development IS changing,
> and the software world is HUGELY different today vs what it was when
> the QGIS project began. I honestly feel that it's really just doing
> due-diligence for us as a project to at least investigate these
> different factors and have a trustworthy, well researched body of
> knowledge surrounding it. A large percentage of this community have
> livelihoods/incomes of which QGIS is a significant component, and I'd
> really like to see us as a project recognise and take steps to protect
> this.
>
> At the moment, we're all just throwing around personal opinions
> (myself included) based on incomplete understanding of the whole
> situation...
>
> Nyall
>
>
>
>
> >
> > Andreas
> >
> > On 2019-10-17 08:11, Nyall Dawson wrote:
> >
> > 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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-- 

--
Andreas Neumann
QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
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