[Qgis-psc] PSC Meeting March
Paolo Cavallini
cavallini at faunalia.it
Wed Mar 18 03:02:33 PDT 2020
Sorry, I meant 20th
Il 17/03/20 14:08, Andreas Neumann ha scritto:
> 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
> <mailto: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
> <mailto: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 <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 <http://QGIS.org>
>
> Visit http://kartoza.com <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 <http://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 <mailto:Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-psc mailing list
> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org <mailto:Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
>
>
> --
>
> --
> Andreas Neumann
> QGIS.ORG <http://QGIS.ORG> board member (treasurer)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Qgis-psc mailing list
> Qgis-psc at lists.osgeo.org
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-psc
>
--
Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
QGIS.ORG Chair:
http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
More information about the Qgis-psc
mailing list