Qt and the GPL

[David Johnson]

For those who not yet heard, the Qt 2.2 library will be released under
the GPL on Wednesday. It will also be available under the QPL and a
proprietary version as well. (see the announcement at www.trolltech.com)

I have no idea yet whether this means that Qt will be dual-licensed
under both the QPL and GPL, or if there will be separate versions. But
it raises some interesting questions.

If there will be separate versions (and I hope there won't), then this
will be the first time (that I am aware of) that a GPLd library will be
available with an identical non-GPL version. So, if one writes a
program linking to the QPL version, can it be used with the GPL version
as well? I would think that it could, and RMS has said it could, but
I'm wondering what the legal minded think.

And if it is to be dual-licensed, doesn't that mean that one gets to
pick and choose their terms? For instance, I can both link to it with a
non-GPL application, as well as not having to submit modifications as
patches. Any Perl users out there familiar with dual licensing issues?

And finally, how will Trolltech accept modifications? Will they be able
to apply both the QPL and GPL to the modification at the same time?

-- 
David Johnson
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