KHTML/IWebBrowser [Was: Help Support]

Ender winedev at admdev.com
Tue Nov 12 01:37:23 CST 2002


Who am I to argue with you over KDE licensing? :)

But while I know TrollTech wouldn't do anything, technically I'm pretty
sure I'm correct.

The problem isn't linking a GPL'd program against an LGPL library (which
is fine for two reasons, in this case glibc is a 'system library', and
secondly the LGPL has a 'under the terms of this license, OR the GPL'
clause.. so when included in a GPL'd program it's automatically GPL'd)...

The problem is linking a LGPL'd library against a GPL'd library. Eg, in
this case kdelibs (LGPL'd) is linked against a GPL'd library.

In your example ProgramX (GPL'd) was linked against a LGPL'd library.
Completely different cases.

I'm not a lawyer and all that, but the way I read it, you simply cannot
link in that direction. Expecially statically linking, as that makes
kdelibs a derivitive work of QT. Which means kdelibs must adapt the GPL.
Clause 3 of the LGPL would thus cause kdelibs to revert to the GPL, not
the LGPL.

Hence why I was so confused about which license it was under.

Now, this isn't a bad thing for kdelibs - reverting to the GPL means
nothing important... but it thus creates a condition where anything using
a LGPL->GPL'd reverted library (which is every library in kdelibs, pretty
much, as I'm fairly sure they all use QT headers) must also be GPLed. Thus
non-GPL'd kde apps are illegal.

Confusing, isn't it? :) And this conversation is getting pretty OT, so we
should probably dump it from the list.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the way it reads to my sleep-deprived mind. I
know nobody will enforce it, but it does create an intresting conflict
which could have numerous ramifications (if I am correct).. such as KDE
not being included in Debian again (*cry*).

 - Ender

> > Basically, KDE and TrollTech are being quite inconsistant. As long as we
> > remove QT dependancy from the khtml/kjs libraries, we can implement it in
> > WINE. As the code currently stands, khtml/kjs (and a bunch of other KDE
> > libraries) are in violation of their own licensing :)
>
> HUH???
>
> When did you look last time at your linux distribution, specifically at the
> glibc license... yup, it's... LGPL'd... does it means that linking a GPL'd
> program against LGPL library is illegal? nope, it's very legal..
>
> Same case here. kdelibs are LGPL'd (some with artistic license, some with BSD
> license, etc) are ALLOWED to be linked to GPL'd program, which is also what
> QT is - a GPL (and QPL) license.
>
> Do you think that TrollTech wouldn't do anything if it was illegal? after all,
> the KDE is their number 1 "customer" ;)
>
> Thanks,
> Hetz
>




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