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by zach43 2640 days ago
i could imagine a third camp between Free Software and Open Source following something like the Qt dual-licensing model:

1. You are free to use this software for non-commercial use.

2. If you'd like to use this software for commercial use, you must either actively contribute to this project, or provide a donation to the project maintainers at Patreon / Paypal / Liberapay, etc.
2 comments
fineIllregister 2640 days ago
Qt can be used commercially for free. It's LGPL whether you pay or not.

Users only need to pay for a license if they want to distribute statically linked software with Qt, if it is licensed in a way that is LGPL incompatible.

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rrdharan 2640 days ago
> Qt can be used commercially for free. It's LGPL whether you pay or not.

This is true now, but was not always the case.

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empyrical 2639 days ago
The parent comment implied that it was still the case however, which is misleading; it has been available under GPL rather than the non-commercial "QPL" since 2000, and under the less-restrictive LGPL since 2009.

Qt is also interesting in that there is also an agreement in place with the KDE Foundation that ensures that the Qt Company will always offer the core parts of Qt under a "proper" open source license. If they choose to switch to one of these non-commercial licenses again, then KDE is entitled to release the source under a BSD license if they want

https://kde.org/community/whatiskde/kdefreeqtfoundation.php

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pjmlp 2640 days ago
That is exactly my point of view.

Want to use the work of others for free, then to you what others get.

Willing to actually help upstream keep doing what they love, then great.

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