[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March
Vincent Picavet (ml)
vincent.ml at oslandia.com
Mon Mar 16 06:06:51 PDT 2020
Hello,
I re-state here what I already said on the GitHub issue ( ) concerning a
distribution of GPL-licenced software on App Store endorsed by QGIS.org.
I am worried that this could lead to legal troubles. There are clear issues with
providing GPL applications on apple store. While having an app supporting iOS
could be ok, distribution through the Apple app store makes the user have to
accept iOS terms of use, which are not compatible with the licence of the software.
While publishing GPL software on iOS is the issue of the software provider /
publisher, linking it from qgis.org website would be an endorsement, and would
lead to legal risk.
I would personally be against it, and it should indeed be an official PSC
decision, having taken into account all related risks, preferably after seeking
official legal advice from an opensource IP expert lawyer.
I copy hereafter the report of our IP lawyer, who we consulted when we had this
question a while ago (on a different GPL software) :
-----
Concerning publishing a GNU GPL application on App Store
Distributing software on Apple App Store is likely to contrain the user to
accept General Usage Conditions s a-priori not compatible with the GNU GPL
Licence v3.0 or later. As a matter of fact, AppStore TOS -- which users as well
as developers must accept -- constrain the usage
that can be done with the software, which is contradictory to the GNU GPL v3 or
later. The latter forbids to apply such usage restrictions when distributing a
software under its terms.
Such a difficulty also applies to the distribution of a version of software X on
AppStore including Z ( licenced as GPL ). It is on this basis that the
application VLC has been initially removed from Appstore, before being
re-introduced under a new licence conform ( double licence
Mozilla Public Licence 2.0 and GNU GPL v3.0).
Therefore, such a distribution would be possible under appstore only if its
licence is modified according to this choice.
Article 10 of GNU GPL 3.0 : « You may not impose any further restrictions on the
exercise of the rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you
may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights
granted under this License, and you
may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a
lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling,
offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it. »
----
As for changing the QGIS licence to add an exception for app store, or any other
specific use, it would indeed require every single QGIS contributor to agree. I
clearly cannot see this happening, given our large contributor base and a clear
opposition to any licence change from at least a few of them.
Strictly conforming with legal requirement of our licence choices is vital for
the project and QGIS.org credibility. If we want our users to respect the GPL
licence which is the basis for all QGIS work, and share their modifications
back, we cannot compromise on legal aspects, even if it is a burden for the user.
This is sad, but "real world people do not respect licences" is not really an
argument.
Should any external organization make the choice to compromise with legal terms
and licences, it is their own responsibility, and I personaly do not care as
soon as there is no impact on the QGIS project and QGIS organization.
Best regards,
Vincent
On 15/03/2020 12:24, Saber Razmjooei wrote:
> Hi Andreas,
>
> In terms of opposition to QGIS for iOS, there are 2 issues to address:
> 1- Presence of any QGIS derived app on App Store, according to some black and
> white interpretation of GPL, this might not be allowed. There has been no prior
> cases, so it is up to the PSC to gauge the risk and come up with a decision. In
> other similar situations, the issue was resolved by simply, an addendum to the
> license to exempt the App Store by the project and developers, so long as the
> derived apps are still compatible with the main license.
>
> 2- QGIS for iOS: we have spent weeks to port QGIS and subsequently Input to iOS
> platform. There is no restrictions for us and even for QGIS project to
> acknowledge the fact that QGIS/Input can be installed on iOS platform. The
> sticking point is App Store and there are other methods of installing apps on
> iOS platform, but it will be an extra burden on users. There is no way, we are
> going to throw away our work on the iOS platform and it will be a loss to QGIS
> project too, IMO.
>
> In general, I would like to have a pragmatic solution (see Point 1: providing an
> addendum to the GPL) to address the situation. There is also a wider question
> for the PSC: to ensure QGIS remains relevant and the licensing terms do not
> limit the project for future adaptation. For example, with the new developments
> in Qt and WebAssembly, one can envisage a day when QGIS can be run in a web
> browser. Is the licensing terms sufficient enough to address future
> platforms/use-cases?
>
> Kind regards
> Saber
>
>
> On Fri, 13 Mar 2020 at 22:41, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net
> <mailto:a.neumann at carto.net>> wrote:
>
> Yes - I could also do the meeting in the afternoon. I work from home the
> coming days and I can interrupt my work during some time.
>
> Greetings,
>
> Andreas
>
> Am 13.03.20 um 23:19 schrieb Anita Graser:
>> I think Tuesday should be fine. Can also do earlier in the day if needed.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Anita
>>
>> On Fri, 13 Mar 2020, 18:14 Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net
>> <mailto:a.neumann at carto.net>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I agree with Marco: it would be useful to have a dedicated meeting to
>> get the AGM prepared. Could we do the meeting the coming Tuesday
>> evening at 20:00? Would this work for everybody? There are quite some
>> extra things on the AGM to vote on (binary plugins, environmental
>> policy) - so that will need some work.
>>
>> Meanwhile, the financial auditing was done by Andreas Vonlaufen and
>> Andreas Voigt. Both would volunteer to do it another year. Their
>> auditing document can be found at the Google drive in
>> Finances/Financial Auditing Reports
>>
>> I will publish them with the report this weekend (preliminary, because
>> the AGM has to approve as well).
>>
>> We'd also need to discuss the IOS thing better. There is quite some
>> opposition to linking to the iOS version or our endorsement of any iOS
>> QGIS version. That needs to be discussed.
>>
>> Thanks for your feedback if you could make an ad-hoc meeting the
>> coming Tuesday evening. Otherwise, please suggest extra dates. But
>> given that we are not supposed to travel these days - I assume
>> everyone would be at home anyway.
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Andreas
>>
>>
>> Am 13.03.20 um 11:34 schrieb Marco Bernasocchi:
>>> Hi Jurgen, sorry, I missformulated, we said on the 3rd that we were
>>> meeting in Den Bosch to get all the AGM thing going, that is what I ment :)
>>>
>>> Too much corona ;)
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> On 13.03.20 11:27, Jürgen E. Fischer wrote:
>>>> Hi Marco,
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 13. Mar 2020 at 09:42:55 +0100, Marco Bernasocchi wrote:
>>>>> yeah, but that will be in 1 month...
>>>>>
>>>>> we skipped the March one because we where going to do it in Den Bosch.
>>>> Huh, but we had one in on the 3rd - and you were there.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Jürgen
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Qgis-psc mailing list
>>>> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>> _______________________________________________
>> Qgis-psc mailing list
>> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-psc mailing list
> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
>
>
> --
> Saber Razmjooei
> www.lutraconsulting.co.uk <http://www.lutraconsulting.co.uk>
> +44 (0)7568 129733
>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-psc mailing list
> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
More information about the Qgis-psc
mailing list