Hello,
First of all let me clear that I am a Mechanical Engineering student & have an avid interest in C++ programing. Around September 2012 I came across Qt. I have been developing a program in Qt Creator 4.8 (LGPL version) which I will be releasing as Open Source.
However I have also been planning to develop another program which will be free to use but will be closed source. Since I will devote huge time & resources in it I plan to earn money by folllowing methods:
1. Provide an option for users to donate me money as per their wish.
2. Earn money through advertisement on website & the program itself will feature advertisements.
3. Should be able to sell the program (source code & all) to a company if they are interested in buying my program.
4. Charge for Cutomisation to individual users
5. Charge for plug-ins/add-ons.
Now here’s the problem:
Until Qt was with Nokia i.e. till 4.8 version under LGPL I could do the same without any legal objections. But now with Qt 5 if i want to develop closed source application (even though free to use) I have to use the commercial version of Qt.
The commercial license of Qt is the correct license to use for the development of proprietary and/or commercial software with Qt where you need to safeguard your development investment to secure your competitive advantage.
So if i don’t move to Qt 5 & continue with Qt 4.8 will I be able to do the above mentioned points?
Thank You!
PS: Sorry if my question is common or stupid. I tried searching on internet but couldnt find precise facts outlining my situation.
Also I have no interest in modifying Qt & want to use it as is. In addition, I have no problem in saying that I have developed the application in Qt on my products website & its documentation!
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