[Qgis-user] QGIS Licensing in Production Development

[Vincent Picavet]

Hello,

On 11/12/2025 14:37, Fernando M. Roxo da Motta via QGIS-User wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Dec 2025 22:20:10 -0500, Mustafa Cayci via QGIS-User
> <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org> wrote:
> [..]
>    If your software is derived from a GPL code, as stated by the license
> itself, your software has to be GPL licensed as well and it has a series
> of obligations (described in license) about full source code
> distribution.
> [..]


Actually, the software licence can be in a GPL-compatible licence ( like MIT ), and will become GPL when distributed linked with another GPL-licenced module.

But since a QGIS plugin will be distributed linked with QGIS anyway, best is to directly licence the code under a GPL licence.

Also, beware of GPL2 / GPL3 non-compatibility. To all QGIS users, if you want to simplify things and stay safe, publish your plugins under a "GPL v2 or later" licence.

Vincent Picavet



>    HTH
>
>> Dear QGIS Team,
>>
>> I am planning to build a commercial solution for my customers that
>> uses QGIS together with an object detection model (YOLO). The idea is
>> to:
>>
>> Use QGIS as the main GIS platform / interface,
>> Integrate or call a YOLO-based object detection workflow (e.g., as a
>> plugin, script, or external service),
>> Package this as a solution that I sell to my customers (either as a
>> service or as software they install).
>>
>> I would be grateful if you could clarify the following points:
>>
>> Licensing and redistribution
>>
>> QGIS is licensed under the GPL. Under what conditions may I bundle
>> QGIS with my own code and distribute it as part of a commercial
>> offering? If I write a QGIS plugin that uses YOLO (for example, a
>> Python plugin calling external inference code or a remote API), does
>> this plugin also need to be GPL-licensed, or can it be under a
>> different license? Are there specific requirements for how I should
>> provide source code, notices, or license information when
>> distributing QGIS together with my own software?
>>
>> Commercial use and charging customers
>>
>> Am I allowed to charge customers for installation, customization,
>> training, and ongoing support of a QGIS-based solution that includes
>> my own YOLO-based object detection tools?
>>
>> Thank you very much for your time.
>> Mustafa
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>    Roxo
>