Quote from: Pieter Wuille on September 08, 2011, 07:59:07 AM

Quote from: twobits on September 07, 2011, 08:24:37 PM

Quote from: FatherMcGruder on September 07, 2011, 01:42:30 PM

Quote from: twobits on September 07, 2011, 01:39:33 AM

I would think they should be released a separately as the qt dependency changes the nature of the licenses being depended on, and a more free main branch would be preferable.

Qt is available under a commercial license, the LGPL, and the GPL. Can you elaborate on your concerns?

It is just that. It would be the most restrictive license yet used for anything required. If this was brought in, anyone distributing binaries will also have to make available the source code to the Qt that they used for example or not bundle it. Wxwidgets made sure those conditions did not apply to derived works distributed in binary form. The creators of Qt got dragged a bit towards it even being as unrestricted as the LGPL in the beginning. I had noticed that the licenses picked so far are all much less restrictive and had thought that was a deliberate choice to keep the software free to more uses without the burdens of the GPL

But the license of the bitcoin and bitcoin-qt code is still MIT, even though it links against an LGPL library. IANAL, but I believe this means that if you use the source to build a headless version (which doesn't link against Qt) there is no restriction on the distribution of the resulting binary.

We're statically linking BDB4.7 already. Read that license?

edit: to save some hunting, here it is:

Code:

/*
* Copyright (c) 1990,2008 Oracle. All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
* 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
* documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* 3. Redistributions in any form must be accompanied by information on
* how to obtain complete source code for the DB software and any
* accompanying software that uses the DB software. The source code
* must either be included in the distribution or be available for no
* more than the cost of distribution plus a nominal fee, and must be
* freely redistributable under reasonable conditions. For an
* executable file, complete source code means the source code for all
* modules it contains. It does not include source code for modules or
* files that typically accompany the major components of the operating
* system on which the executable file runs.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ORACLE ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
* IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
* WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR
* NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ORACLE BE LIABLE
* FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
* CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
* SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
* BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
* WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
* OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN
* IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*/