[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March

Tue Mar 17 11:34:37 PDT 2020

Hi Marco,

As co-chair, could you please let us know if we should meet in half an hour?

Thanks!
Anita

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 2:08 PM Andreas Neumann <andreas at qgis.org> wrote:

> 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.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Qgis-psc mailing list
>>> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>>
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>
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Andreas Neumann
> QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
>
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