Q Public License
| Author | Trolltech |
|---|---|
| Latest version | 1.0 |
| Publisher | Trolltech AS |
| Published | 1999–2000 |
| DFSG compatible | No |
| FSF approved | Yes |
| OSI approved | Yes |
| GPL compatible | No |
| Copyleft | No |
The Q Public License (QPL) is a non-copyleft license, created by Trolltech for its free edition of the Qt. It was used until Qt 3.0, as Trolltech toolkit version 4.0 was released under GPL version 2.
It fails the Debian Free Software Guidelines, used by several Linux distributions, though it qualifies for the Free Software Foundation's Free Software Definition; however, it is not compatible with the FSF's GNU General Public License, meaning that products derived from code under both the GPL and the QPL cannot be redistributed.
KDE, a desktop environment for Linux, is based on Qt. Only the personal edition of Qt was covered by the QPL; the commercial edition, which is functionally equal, is under a pay-per-use license and could not be freely distributed. Meanwhile, the Free Software Foundation and authors of the GPL objected to the QPL as it was a non-copyleft license incompatible with the GPL. As KDE grew in popularity, the free software community urged Trolltech to put Qt under a license (the QPL) that would assure that it would remain free software forever and could be used and developed by commercial third parties. Eventually, under pressure, Trolltech dual-licensed Qt for use under the terms of the GPL or the QPL.
Other projects that have adopted the Q Public License, sometimes with a change in the choice of jurisdiction clause, include:
Previous projects using the Q Public License include:
The Debian project rejects software covered by solely QPL (and not dual licensed with something else like the GPL) because of:
All legal disputes about the license are settled in Oslo, Norway, but it has never been legally contested.
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