💾 Archived View for gemini.bortzmeyer.org › fosdem › event-11139.gmi captured on 2022-04-29 at 01:28:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-17)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

FOSDEM event "Protecting against proprietary re-licensing with a community contract"

Cornelius Schumacher

Type devroom

How the KDE Free Qt Foundation ensures software freedom for twenty-five years and counting

Starts on day 2 (2021-02-07) at 14:30 (Brussels time, UTC+1) in room Legal (duration 01:00)

Matrix room #legal:fosdem.org

When the initial release of Qt was published in 1995, it was one of the first projects to use a dual-licensing model. This model, LGPL and a proprietary commercial license today, has served the project well for more than 25 years. It is less well known that the dual-licensing model is supported by a community contract which guarantees the freedom of Qt beyond what is in the license covered. This contract is maintained by the KDE Free Qt Foundation and has kept Qt free through multiple acquisitions and other turbulences.

This presentation will explain the community contract, how it augments the dual-licensing model, and how it has evolved and served its purpose for 25 years and counting. It will also discuss what are the lessons learned and how it can serve as a model for projects today.

FOSDEM schedule page