[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March

Tue Mar 17 11:50:45 PDT 2020

hi yes we'll meet.
see you then

On Tue, 17 Mar 2020, 19:34 Anita Graser, <anitagraser at gmx.at> wrote:

> 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.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 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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