license
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Hello, I'm a truck driver at my company. As a hobbyist, I'd like to develop software with Qt. This will only be used within our company and will not be sold to anyone else. The source code will be available to my company. Do I need a license for this, and if so, which one?
Thank you. -
Here's the starting point: https://www.qt.io/qt-licensing
"Every person using Qt needs to comply with either Open Source License (GPL and LGPL) or Qt Commercial License". -
Hello, I'm a truck driver at my company. As a hobbyist, I'd like to develop software with Qt. This will only be used within our company and will not be sold to anyone else. The source code will be available to my company. Do I need a license for this, and if so, which one?
Thank you.@Fuxi as long as you don't statically link to QT, or modify the QT libraries no, you don't need to do anything else. The program using QT's libraries can be kept private or sold. GPL and LGPL mainly apply to the libraries using them.
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Not legal advice, but as general guidance the obligations of the GPL license are only triggered by distributing the software. Developing and using a GPL-licensed program within an organization is not considered distributing. Therefore in principal you may be able to use Qt under the GPL license for the purpose you describe - including static linking, patching Qt, etc. As long as you do so in the confines of your company, which you should clear with the legal department.
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Not legal advice, but as general guidance the obligations of the GPL license are only triggered by distributing the software. Developing and using a GPL-licensed program within an organization is not considered distributing. Therefore in principal you may be able to use Qt under the GPL license for the purpose you describe - including static linking, patching Qt, etc. As long as you do so in the confines of your company, which you should clear with the legal department.
As long as you do so in the confines of your company, which you should clear with the legal department.
Well, if he develops it as a hobby in his own spare time isn't using it inside the company distributing it?
To be pedantic: Yes, you need a license (that's how the law works). However, there are open source licenses for Qt ;-)
It is perfectly fine to use Qt under the LGPL for commercial projects and even sell your own software using Qt with this license. Just because your project is commercial doesn't mean you need a commercial license (unless it is embedded software???). If you want to use Qt under the LGPL you need to be careful that you don't use some of the very few modules (like Qt Charts) that are only available under the GPL or commercial license. If you are using modules under the GPL you need to make your own source code available under the GPL. Once your source code is under the GPL you don't have much control over who can use your software. Anybody in your company can give the software (including the source code) to anybody else and you cannot prevent them if your own source code is under the GPL. Most likely this won't happen, but it is explicitly allowed by the GPL.