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The Qt company owns the copyright to the Qt source code so they can sell (L)GPL exceptions. Bundling LGPL code in a binary, as mobile may require, instead of lo

The Qt company owns the copyright to the Qt source code so they can sell (L)GPL exceptions. Bundling LGPL code in a binary, as mobile may require, instead of loading as dynamic library, requires you to get an LGPL exception from the copyright holder (or provide an object file for the user to relink). Other licenses, like Apache and the EPL, do not have this issue. Companies can do this for open source projects. They require you to sign a contributor agreement handing over over copyright or require you license the code to them under the MIT. For the most part, differs based on region and IANAL. Edit: corrected in () that you can comply with the LGPL with static binaries with providing an object file to the user to relink with.

enriquto 6y ago
> Bundling LGPL code in a binary, as mobile may require, instead of loading as dynamic library, requires you to get an LGPL exception from the copyright holder. How come? The LGPL allows people to distribute statically compiled binaries that use Qt, you do not need an exception for that.
- csdreamer7 6y ago
  > The LGPL allows people to distribute statically compiled binaries that use Qt Hmmm... you can as long as you provide an object. Learned something new today. I do remember Mike discussing that on Coder Radio that would be an issue in the security industry. I assuming there were some aerospace libraries that are NDAed/restricted by national security laws. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10130143/gpl-lgpl-and-static-linking https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10130143/gpl-lgpl-and-st... http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LGPLStaticVsDynamic http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LGPLStaticVsDynamic Is this possible on iOS? Not familiar with iOS dev, but I assume Apple may have some TOS problems with that.
  - jcelerier 6y ago
    It is, Cisco does it for one of their apps which uses Gstreamer on iOS. See the note here at the end: https://github.com/freedesktop/gstreamer/blob/master/README.static-linking https://github.com/freedesktop/gstreamer/blob/master/README....
thebruce87m 6y ago
Can’t you bundle it in a binary as long as you provide an upgrade path for the QT part? I know this doesn’t work for mobile because users can’t do it due to the app stores, but for an embedded MCU application you could allow re-linking and reflashing of the hardware.

enriquto 6y ago

> Bundling LGPL code in a binary, as mobile may require, instead of loading as dynamic library, requires you to get an LGPL exception from the copyright holder. How come? The LGPL allows people to distribute statically compiled binaries that use Qt, you do not need an exception for that.

csdreamer7 6y ago
> The LGPL allows people to distribute statically compiled binaries that use Qt Hmmm... you can as long as you provide an object. Learned something new today. I do remember Mike discussing that on Coder Radio that would be an issue in the security industry. I assuming there were some aerospace libraries that are NDAed/restricted by national security laws. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10130143/gpl-lgpl-and-static-linking https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10130143/gpl-lgpl-and-st... http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LGPLStaticVsDynamic http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LGPLStaticVsDynamic Is this possible on iOS? Not familiar with iOS dev, but I assume Apple may have some TOS problems with that.
- jcelerier 6y ago
  It is, Cisco does it for one of their apps which uses Gstreamer on iOS. See the note here at the end: https://github.com/freedesktop/gstreamer/blob/master/README.static-linking https://github.com/freedesktop/gstreamer/blob/master/README....

thebruce87m 6y ago

Can’t you bundle it in a binary as long as you provide an upgrade path for the QT part? I know this doesn’t work for mobile because users can’t do it due to the app stores, but for an embedded MCU application you could allow re-linking and reflashing of the hardware.