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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 07 2021, @01:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the shooting-yourself-in-the-foot dept.

Open-source contributors say they'll pull out of Qt as LTS release goes commercial-only:

The Qt Company has followed up on its plan to make long-term support releases commercial-only by closing the source for 5.15 today, earning protests from open-source contributors who say that the 6.0 release, which remains open, is not yet usable.

[...] Yesterday senior VP Tuukka Turunen posted: "With Qt 6.0.0 released and the first patch release (Qt 6.0.1) coming soon, it is time to enter the commercial-only LTS phase for Qt 5.15 LTS. All the existing 5.15 branches remain publicly visible, but they are closed for new commits (and cherry-picks)... closing happens tomorrow, 5th January 2021.

"After this the cherry-picks go to another repository that will be available only for the commercial license holders... first commercial-only Qt 5.15.3 LTS patch release is planned to be released in February."

[...] The problem is that these releases are in effect no longer maintained. If there is a security issue, or a fix needed to support some change in one of the target operating systems, open-source users will not get that fix other than in the not-ready version 6.0.

Open-source contributor Thiago Macieira, an Intel software architect, said of the decision: "That means I will not be participating in the development of those fixes, commenting on what's appropriate or not, reviewing backports, or bug reports."

"Tend to agree," said Konstantin Ritt, another developer. "If there is a decision to close 5.15 sources, there'll be no more work from external/unpaid contributors."

Turunen responded that: "This is well understandable and expected. The Qt Company is prepared to handle the Qt 5.15 LTS phase work."


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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:55AM (13 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:55AM (#1096147) Journal

    If you own the code, you can revoke the license. What you can't do is take away existing copies in the field from before revokation.

    Same thing with any updates - you better have a pre-existing copy of all the sources and documentation, and be prepared to maintain it independently of Qt.

    And any future revisions better use a different name. Just too risky otherwise. Looks like Qt learned something from Larry "I want a bigger super yacht" Ellison.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @03:00AM (3 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday January 07 2021, @03:00AM (#1096151) Journal

    Only on future versions. Released copies under the GPL are forever under the GPL. Yes, they will have to use a different name, like any other fork.

    --
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    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:29AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:29AM (#1096372)

      > Released copies under the GPL are forever under the GPL.
      WRONG. The GPL is not US law. The GPL is NOT a copyright Transfer: it is a free non-exclusive license.
      There is a reason the FSF requires copyright transfers from contributors.

      Free licenses are revocable. Yes, IAAL.

      https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/creating-written-contract-transfer-or-license-rights-under-copyright [dmlp.org]
      >Nonexclusive licenses also do not require consideration in order to be valid. However, nonexclusive licenses are revocable (meaning the copyright owner can revoke the license at any time) in the absence of consideration. This means that, whether or not you set a fixed time limit for the duration of the non-exclusive license in the licensing agreement, you (as the copyright owner) can revoke the license at any point if you do not receive consideration for it. Conversely, if you (as the copyright owner) receive consideration in return for the grant of the license, then you cannot revoke the license unless you provide for revocation in the license agreement

      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 07 2021, @04:49PM (1 child)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday January 07 2021, @04:49PM (#1096520) Journal

        Well, if it really works out that way, it's unacceptable. Since no store bought politician will ever change that, we'll have to get it overturned in the courts.

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:15PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:15PM (#1096557)

          Agreed. If it really does work out that way this would be totally unacceptable.

  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday January 07 2021, @05:52AM (7 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Thursday January 07 2021, @05:52AM (#1096294)

    >If you own the code, you can revoke the license.

    Not quite - you got it more right in your comment a bit above.

    You can change the terms under which you license future copies - but you can't revoke the licenses you already granted in the past.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:18AM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:18AM (#1096364)

      >You can change the terms under which you license future copies - but you can't revoke the licenses you already granted in the past.

      Yes you can. If you paid nothing for the license it can be revoked.
      And yes, IAAL. This will be easier with the new CASE small claims copyright court being set up also.

      https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/creating-written-contract-transfer-or-license-rights-under-copyright [dmlp.org]
      >Nonexclusive licenses also do not require consideration in order to be valid. However, nonexclusive licenses are revocable (meaning the copyright owner can revoke the license at any time) in the absence of consideration. This means that, whether or not you set a fixed time limit for the duration of the non-exclusive license in the licensing agreement, you (as the copyright owner) can revoke the license at any point if you do not receive consideration for it. Conversely, if you (as the copyright owner) receive consideration in return for the grant of the license, then you cannot revoke the license unless you provide for revocation in the license agreement

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @04:20PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @04:20PM (#1096503)

        Is this still true if the license itself states it's irrevocable provided its conditions are met? From GPLv3 [gnu.org]:

        All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met.

        IANAL, but something seems to be fundamentally wrong if you can explicitly give up your right to revoke a license, as part of the license, and then just decide your promise doesn't count. I also know that the lawyers involved in writing GPLv3 were keen on getting details like that right, it is *meant* to be irrevocable for anyone who doesn't violate its terms.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:35AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:35AM (#1104951)

          Illusory promise if you didn't pay anything. Worth nothing. You can say "HE PROMISED IT WAS IRREVOCABLE" all you want: it's worth nothing if you paid nothing for that "promise"
          Believe what you want though.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:37AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:37AM (#1104953)

          Yes it is still true.
          Illusory promise if you didn't pay anything. Worth nothing. You can say "HE PROMISED IT WAS IRREVOCABLE" all you want: it's worth nothing if you paid nothing for that "promise"
          Believe what you want though.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:11PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:11PM (#1096606)

        sounds like a good way for small foss projects to get funded. offer two versions. one paid with unrevocable license and one free with revocable license.

      • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 08 2021, @01:01PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 08 2021, @01:01PM (#1096963)

        Well, the Mr. Anonym Lawyer, you should read the license terms before talking about it,

        2. Basic Permissions.

        All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met.

        If you grant something under irrevocable license, it's kind of difficult to go back to court and claim that you just want to revoke it.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:32AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @01:32AM (#1104950)

          >If you grant something under irrevocable license, it's kind of difficult to go back to court and claim that you just want to revoke it.

          Wrong, illusory promise if you didn't pay anything. Worth nothing.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:21AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:21AM (#1096366)

    > If you own the code, you can revoke the license.
    Correct.

    >What you can't do is take away existing copies in the field from before revokation.
    Wrong: you can revoke Free licenses at will, including existing copies.

    >Same thing with any updates - you better have a pre-existing copy of all the sources and documentation, and be prepared to maintain it independently of Qt.

    If the Free license is revoked, distributing copies would be Copyright infringement. Regardless of what the Free License claimed.

    https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/creating-written-contract-transfer-or-license-rights-under-copyright [dmlp.org]
    >Nonexclusive licenses also do not require consideration in order to be valid. However, nonexclusive licenses are revocable (meaning the copyright owner can revoke the license at any time) in the absence of consideration. This means that, whether or not you set a fixed time limit for the duration of the non-exclusive license in the licensing agreement, you (as the copyright owner) can revoke the license at any point if you do not receive consideration for it. Conversely, if you (as the copyright owner) receive consideration in return for the grant of the license, then you cannot revoke the license unless you provide for revocation in the license agreement