[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March

Tue Mar 17 06:08:24 PDT 2020

Paolo - can you comment if you can participate tonight? Did you mix up the
dates or did you really mean the 20th (Friday)?

Greetings,
Andreas

On Tue, 17 Mar 2020 at 12:11, Anita Graser <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:

> 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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>
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-- 

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