[PyQt] LGPL license.

[Brian Kelley]

On 2/10/09 6:13 PM, "Jim Bublitz" <jbublitz at nwinternet.com> wrote:

I've never minded people using my software for free - even commercially.
I just hate it when they whine about software being free, but not on
terms where they can profit enormously from other people's work. It's
the whining, not the profiting, that I object to.

I was going to keep my mouth shut, but I have to agree with this sentiment.  I don't envy Phil this choice.  On the one hand we all love something that is "free".  On the other, Phil has put an immense amount of work into PyQt and as a paying commercial user, I think it is a fair trade as far as I'm concerned.  I.e. I give Phil money and he makes sure new versions of Qt work with python and I can use them in a commercial product.

What are the alternative options so PyQt  can be LGPLd?  I can see three:


 1.  PyQt is LGPL'd but support costs money.  (I would still pay for support, not that I actually have needed it, mind you, Phil is usually on top of the ball as far as I'm concerned)
 2.  Phil LGPL's PyQt and abandons it for us to support since he has no income from the project.  Personally, I'm not actually happy with this one as I (selfishly) imagine it has the most disruption.
 3.  Nokia realizes that PyQt is indispensible to KDE and pays Phil to keep up support.  (I can dream, can't I?)

Anyway, I appreciate Phil's effort, and as long as I get new versions of PyQt I'll be happy whatever he chooses.

And to Mr. Knapp, have you considered GPL'ing your software and also selling it?  You know you can do both, and you don't have to pay a dime for Qt or PyQt. If it is a content driven application, the content does not have to be GPL'd, just the source.  I.e. While people can distribute the source code to whatever engine you produce, they cannot distribute assets the engine uses.  Most users will never know, nor care about the difference.

I have successfully done this on an OSX web-based database that sold for about $1000 a pop.  Buy the data, the source is free, pretty much.

Brian Kelley
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