[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March

Tue Mar 17 03:47:16 PDT 2020

Reposting as list message was rejected due to size:

Hi

Thank you so much for your email @Vincent. Personally I have read your email below and numerous articles online about it and there is still, in my mind, room for posting a GPL app on the apple store - there just needs to be a clear path to fetch the binaries so that you can install it on your other systems (i.e. the contention mainly relates to the third freedom). This could be done in the application itself with a link somewhere to download the package files and notes on how to install it (which to be fair may be a convoluted process on some operating systems).

However, in acknowledgement that there is probably never going to be general agreement on this, and the only conclusive way to deal with it is to modify our license to add an exemption for distribution via app stores (I would propose a general exemption rather then mentioning any specific one), I have contacted Saber off-list and asked him to remove the link to INPUT on our web site. I did this along with a deep sense of shame that we cannot acknowledge the hard work of long term contributors to QGIS - in particular Martin has been a contributor to QGIS since the very early days of the project.

https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Website/pull/735 <https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Website/pull/735> 

The assessment of the situation below may be right, but IMHO the situation itself is wrong - we should not be held hostage by our own license. Our license choice was intended to ensure that QGIS can be a GIS that everyone can use, and we should be actively taking it to every platform that is in popular use. Thus I would like to raise the proposal that we assemble a list of everyone who has made a contribution to the QGIS code base, and at very least, run a poll to see how many would be amenable to a modification of the license. From the poll results we will be able to see 1) are 100% of the authors contactable and 2) what % of the codebase currently under GPL could not be relicensed. 

Regards

Tim
> 
> 
>> On 16 Mar 2020, at 13:06, Vincent Picavet (ml) <vincent.ml at oslandia.com <mailto:vincent.ml at oslandia.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> 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 <http://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 <http://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 <http://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

—

Tim Sutton

Co-founder: Kartoza
Ex Project chair: QGIS.org

Visit http://kartoza.com <http://kartoza.com/> to find out about open source:

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Skype: timlinux 
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