Debian and KDE

[Chris Waters]

David Bristel <targon@targonia.com> writes:

> Well, as soon as KDE is fixed to work with QT2, it can be added in to main.

As soon as the KDE *license* is fixed to work with Qt2's *license*, it
can be added to main.  That may not be so easy, though, since a fair
amount of the code in KDE was borrowed from other sources.  Probably
the core of KDE will appear first, and various KDE apps will start to
appear as their borrowed code is either rewritten or relicensed.

> Until then, the KDE license is in direct conflict with the GPL, so can't be
> according to my understanding of it.

No, no, the KDE license *is* the GPL.  The conflict is with the Qt2
(and Qt1) licenses.  The Qt2 license is DFSG-compliant, but is still
incompatible with the GPL.  Which means that the self-cancelling
clauses of the GPL apply (still).

(Actually, the distribution of KDE for Debian will be legal once KDE
uses Qt2, but *only* if KDE is distributed separately from the Debian
system itself!  Which is obviously a bit of a problem, but better than
nothing.)

As for the obvious question: why do other distros (and some Debian
vendors) bundle KDE if distributing it is illegal?  The answer is
pretty obvious: because the danger of prosecution is pretty close to
nil.  Which makes it a risk that a for-profit company is willing to
take, but one that Debian still really can't.

Chris "almost became a KDE developer once" Waters
-- 
Chris Waters   xtifr@dsp.net | I have a truly elegant proof of the
      or    xtifr@debian.org | above, but it is too long to fit into
http://www.dsp.net/xtifr     | this .signature file.