KDE Free Qt Foundation
The KDE Free Qt Foundation is an organization founded by Trolltech and the KDE e.V. in 1998 with the purpose of securing the availability of the Qt toolkit for the development of Free Software and in particular for the development of the K Desktop Environment (KDE).
To fulfil the purpose of the Foundation, an agreement between Trolltech and the Foundation was made. This gives the Foundation the right to release Qt under a BSD-style license in case Trolltech doesn't continue the development of the Qt Free Edition for any reason including, but not limited to, a buy-out of Trolltech, a merger or bankruptcy.
In May 2004 an updated agreement was made. This new agreement replaces the original one from June 1998 by adapting it to the current situation and providing new text which addresses the problem in a more precise and complete way. The intention and basic content however, are still the same. Another update is in progress due to Trolltech's acquisition by Nokia in 2008.
The board of the Foundation consists of two members from Trolltech and two members from KDE e.V. Decisions of the Foundation are taken by vote of the board members. In case of a tie the votes of the KDE representatives decide.
The KDE e.V. appointed as board members of the KDE Free Qt Foundation the following people:
- Martin Konold
- Olaf Schmidt
The current voting members from Trolltech (elected by the Trolltech general assembly) are:
- Eirik Eng
- Haavard Nord
Announcement
| July 23, 2004: |
Trolltech and KDE Free Qt Foundation Announce Amended and Restated Software
License Agreement (Find the same information at Trolltech's web site). |
| June 1998: |
Original announcement about the
creation of the KDE Free Qt Foundation (Find the same information at Trolltech's web site). |
Original Agreement
Below is a list of the pages of the document containing the original agreement between the KDE Free Qt Foundation and Trolltech from June 1998:
Title page
The Agreement: page
1, page 2
Qt Free Edition license (Exhibit 1): page 3, page 4
KDE Free Qt Foundation Statutes (Exhibit 2): page 5, page 6
BSD-style License
(Exhibit 3)
Updated Agreement
Below is a list of the pages of the document containing the updated agreement between the KDE Free Qt Foundation and Trolltech from May 2004:
The Agreement:
page 1,
page 2,
page 3,
page 4
BSD-style License
(Exhibit A)
The Open Source Definition (Exhibit B):
page 1,
page 2
