[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March

Tue Mar 17 04:11:46 PDT 2020

I'm available but Paolo wrote:

"I agree a meeting would be useful. Things are quite unstable here due to
COVID-19, but I *should* be able to join in the late afternoon or
evening of 20th.  "

Regards,
Anita

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 11:47 AM Tim Sutton <tim at kartoza.com> wrote:

> 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
>
> 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>
> 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 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 to find out about open source:
>
> Desktop GIS programming services
> Geospatial web development
> GIS Training
> Consulting Services
>
> *Skype*: timlinux
> *IRC:* timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net
>
> I'd love to connect. Here's my calendar link
> <https://calendly.com/timlinux> to make finding time easy.
>
> _______________________________________________
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