[PyQt] licensing

[David Boddie]

On Thu Jun 23 21:32:47 BST 2011, Joel B. Mohler wrote:
> On Thursday, June 23, 2011 04:33:20 am Phil Thompson wrote:
>
> > You haven't said what license you want to use for your code. If you use
> > the GPL version of PyQt then your license must be compatible with the
> > GPL.
>
> Sure, that's true *while* the application uses PyQt, but what about *after*
> PyQt is replaced with PySide?  I suppose one could argue that there is some
> ethical commitment due to the history, but I'm not seeing any commitment in
> a legal technical sense.  I think that after all technical reliance from
> PyQt is replaced by technical reliance on PySide, the project is free to
> relicense is it wishes in compliance with the reliance on PySide.

I don't think Phil said anything different to that.

> Or think about it this way:  I write a large project using a GPL library. 
> I wish to have more control so I clean-room re-implement the GPL library. 
> I'm now the sole author of the entire relevant software stack and I believe
> I'm free of the GPL.  I don't see how the fact that Nokia (in the case of
> PySide/PyQt) is the one bank-rolling the clean-room reimplementation
> changes this.

If the entity funding the effort doesn't have a bearing on the use of the
library then why bring them into the argument?

David