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QphiuchuS
30th January 2015, 10:36
Hello!

At the moment I am developing a Qt Quick/C++ application that is part of a larger project that is licensed under the 3 clause BSD. My app is using Oxygen icons that are stored in an icons folder (that means I copied them from /usr/icons to my folder). As far as I could find out (https://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Oxygen/Licensing), copatibility of LGPL and 3GPL should be fine, as long as I:



include a copy of the LGPLv3 licence text in the source code (in the main.cpp?)
include a copy of the LGPLv3 licence text with the binary (as a separate txt file?)
point to http://www.oxygen-icons.org/ (that url is offline however?)


The part that troubles me most is this:


There is one license issue to watch for with proprietary applications, you should not embed the icon into the application binary. This happens if you use Qt resource files or .net linking. This would mean the whole application is now LGPL. Instead you should keep the .png as a separate file and load it at runtime. (There are provisions in the LGPL for allowing this if you have a mechanism to relink to a modified version but most applications do not have such a mechanism).

Now, a BSD licensed library is not a proprietary application, however I cannot change the license of the project my app is a part of. That means, I cannot include the icons in the resource file? But Qt Quick does not find the icons when they're not in the resource file. I could not find a way to include them outside the rc file.

Some clarification on this matter would be appreciated.

Best regards

anda_skoa
30th January 2015, 11:05
include a copy of the LGPLv3 licence text in the source code (in the main.cpp?)

Usually as a separate file



include a copy of the LGPLv3 licence text with the binary (as a separate txt file?)

yes, or showing it in a license dialog, etc.



point to http://www.oxygen-icons.org/ (that url is offline however?)

Maybe some domain grabber got it before it could be renewed.
The process of getting it back can take a long time.



Now, a BSD licensed library is not a proprietary application, however I cannot change the license of the project my app is a part of. That means, I cannot include the icons in the resource file? But Qt Quick does not find the icons when they're not in the resource file. I could not find a way to include them outside the rc file.

There is no problem when shipping sources, since the icons will be available as files anyway.
If you ship a binary with the icons "linked in", then the effective license of the binary is LGPL3 (doesn't of course change the license of the sources).

Qt Quick can load images from basically an URL, resources are one option, local files are another.

Cheers,
_

QphiuchuS
30th January 2015, 11:11
Thank you for your answer, but I still don't get it :confused: Does that mean, that if I ship my app at the present state (icons are included in the resource file as well as in a separate folder) and provide the necessary license text, my binary is LGPL3, but the project my app is a part of remains BSD? So there is no trouble? No conflicts and nothing?

anda_skoa
30th January 2015, 14:00
The 3 clause BSD license is compatible with LGPL3, so no conflicts.

The license of one part does not affec the license of another, the combination of parts is bascially licensed under the combination of license terms of all parts.

Cheers,
_