{"id":"GPL-3.0-only-with-Qt-GPL-exception-1.0","title":"GNU General Public License 3 with Qt GPL exception 1.0","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/GPL-3.0-only.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"The record models GNU General Public License 3 with the exception the SPDX list calls Qt-GPL-exception-1.0. It copies the model of GPL-3.0-only statement for statement and adds what the exception grants. The exception frees the output of the application and a combination with plugins, against a notice that offers the source of the application itself. The copyleft of the base licence still reaches this application, not a larger work that contains its output and not plugins combined with it, and the exception text is quoted in full in dalicc:additionalClauses.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"The file name, the identifier and the local name of the odrl:Set IRI are all GPL-3.0-only-with-Qt-GPL-exception-1.0. spdx:licenseId carries the SPDX expression \"GPL-3.0-only WITH Qt-GPL-exception-1.0\", with one space, an upper-case WITH and one more space, which is how the SPDX list writes a licence combined with an exception.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software, copied from GPL-3.0-only. The exception speaks of code, modules and executables throughout.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"Section 4 reads: \"You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice.\" Section 5 adds the right to convey a modified source version and section 6 the right to convey it in object form. The record therefore keeps every permission of GPL-3.0-only: reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works, modified works and charging a distribution fee. The exception adds one more. It reads: Exception 1 reads: \"As a special exception you may create a larger work which contains the output of this application and distribute that work under terms of your choice, so long as the work is not otherwise derived from or based on this application and so long as the work does not in itself generate output that contains the output from this application in its original or modified form.\" Exception 2 reads: \"As a special exception, you have permission to combine this application with Plugins licensed under the terms of your choice, to produce an executable, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under the terms of your choice.\" That is material the licence carves out of its own condition, so it is modelled as a permission dalicc:exceptedCombination.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"The prohibitions of GPL-3.0-only stay as they are. dalicc:ChangeLicense is still prohibited, because the exception narrows the reach of the reciprocity and does not let the covered work itself leave the licence. The exception carves out two things: a larger work that contains the output of the application, and an executable formed by combining the application with plugins licensed on other terms.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote is prohibited because GPL-3.0-only prohibits it and an exception record keeps every statement of its base. Neither the base text nor the exception has a trademark or endorsement clause, so the prohibition is a library convention here and not text-supported. The review of GPL-2.0-only proposed removing it library-wide.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"The licence-wide cc:ShareAlike duty of GPL-3.0-only stays on the odrl:Set, because the reciprocity of the base licence still covers the whole work. cc:Attribution, cc:Notice and cc:SourceCode stay on distribute, modify and derive, and dalicc:modificationNotice on modify and derive. Exception 2 states its own condition in its own words: \"the executable must be accompanied by a prominent notice offering all users of the executable the entire source code to this application, excluding the source code of the independent modules, but including any changes you have made to this application, under the terms of this license.\" That is a notice and a source offer, so cc:Notice and cc:SourceCode hang off the dalicc:exceptedCombination permission. This is the only record of the set whose exempted permission carries duties.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:reciprocityScope","description":"dalicc:reciprocityScope says in words how far the copyleft reaches after the exception: \"this application, not a larger work that contains its output and not plugins combined with it\". The base record carries no such annotation, because without the exception the reciprocity reaches the whole work.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"The exception text is quoted verbatim as one literal of dalicc:additionalClauses, from https://spdx.org/licenses/Qt-GPL-exception-1.0.html. Line breaks and runs of spaces were collapsed to single spaces, the way every other clause literal in the library is written; no word was changed, added or dropped. The warranty disclaimer and the limitation of liability are the ones of GPL-3.0-only, quoted verbatim from the base text, because the exception changes neither.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"info","field":"cc:jurisdiction","description":"The base text and the exception name no legal system, so cc:jurisdiction stays dalicc:worldwide, dalicc:validityType stays dalicc:perpetual and no dalicc:governingLaw is stated. The termination and cure terms of the base licence are untouched by the exception.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:exceptedCombination","description":"The exception carves the combination out of the condition of the licence, not out of its grant. dalicc:exemptedMaterial says the opposite and is prohibited on OGL-UK-1.0, OGL-UK-2.0 and NLOD-2.0, where it means material the licence never granted. The vocabulary defines dalicc:exceptedCombination for this side of it since 2026-09-23, and the record carries it as a permission.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"gap","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"Exception 1 is about the output of the program, not about combining code: \"you may create a larger work which contains the output of this application and distribute that work under terms of your choice\". Whether the output of a covered work is itself covered is a question no term in the vocabulary answers. Proposed term: dalicc:outputNotCovered, an annotation saying that the output of running the work is outside the licence.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check against dg_default returned no conflicts. The exempted permission is a new action for the checker, it is not prohibited anywhere and the dependency graph holds no relation for it, so it neither triggers nor hides a conflict. The share-alike rule is not triggered, because dalicc:ChangeLicense stays prohibited.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:variantOf","description":"The record is the base licence plus the exception, so it repeats GPL-3.0-only statement for statement and adds four things: the dalicc:exceptedCombination permission, the dalicc:reciprocityScope annotation, the exception text in dalicc:additionalClauses and the pair dalicc:variantKind \"exception\" with dalicc:variantOf dalicclib:GPL-3.0-only. Nothing the base states was removed.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"minor","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:promote was prohibited and no sentence of this text supports it. The statement was the library's reading of a legal default, that a copyright licence which says nothing about endorsement grants no right to it, and it sat in 519 of 581 records as a house convention. That reading is now an adopted dalicc:DefaultRule of the core dependency graph, which supplies it to every licence that is silent about the action, so a compatibility check reaches the same answer and the record states only what the text states. Removed on 2026-09-23; see section 13 of docs/LICENSE_REVIEW.md.","action":"applied","change":"# removed\nodrl:prohibition [ a odrl:Prohibition ;\n        odrl:action dalicc:promote ] ;\n"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance","description":"dalicc:WarrantyOrLiabilityAcceptance held the whole sentence of Section 4, \"You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.\" Its first half is the permission to charge for a copy, which the record states as dalicc:chargeDistributionFee, and not a warranty clause. The literal now quotes only the second half, \"you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee\".","action":"applied"}],"family":"GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)","port_of":null,"variant_kind":"exception","variant_of":"GPL-3.0-only","notes":"The base licence text is the SPDX text of GPL-3.0-only, retrieved on 2026-09-22; the exception text is the SPDX text of Qt-GPL-exception-1.0, from https://spdx.org/licenses/Qt-GPL-exception-1.0.html. Nothing here is legal advice: the record says what the two texts say and quotes them. An exception record never removes a statement its base carries, so anything that looks wrong in this record and is also in GPL-3.0-only belongs to the base record and is written up as a proposal instead."}