GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1

Also known as GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1, LGPL-2.1 with Qt LGPL exception, LGPL-2.1-only WITH Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1, LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1, LGPLv2.1 with Qt LGPL exception.

Commercial use: allowed
Share alike: required
Attribution: required (keep the copyright and license notices)

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Write this as a license text (needs an account) DALICC reads the model above and writes what it permits, requires and prohibits in plain English. Without an account, the Text download above writes the model out from the vocabulary.

Canonical URI https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1

Permissions

Charge distribution fee from the text
Commercial use from the text
Derivative works from the text
Derive from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Modification notice from the text
- Notice from the text
- Source code from the text
Display from the text
Distribute from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Notice from the text
- Patent freedom condition from the text
- Source code from the text
Excepted combination from the text
Modified works from the text
Modify from the text
Duties
- Attribution from the text
- Modification notice from the text
- Notice from the text
- Source code from the text
Present from the text
Reproduce from the text

Prohibitions

Change license from the text
Sublicense from the text

License-wide duties

Share alike from the text

What applies by default

The statements above are the library's reading of this license: each is marked with the sentence it rests on, or as a library convention where the text is not explicit. The statements below are the ones the DALICC reasoner supplies for acts the license says nothing about, from the default rules of the dependency graph it reasons with. Each one names the legal source it rests on. None of it is in the record.

Promote by default rule (adopted)

This license says nothing about Promote, and the graph applies this reading in all jurisdictions it covers: it is not permitted unless the license permits it.

A licence that says nothing about endorsement is read as not allowing it: the licence gives the licensee no right to use the licensor's name or marks in a way that states or implies that the licensor endorses the licensee or its product, while stating truthfully that a work is based on or uses the licensed work is a different act that this rule does not decide. A copyright licence grants rights in the work, and the right to use a name or a trademark is a separate right under trademark law and the protection of names, which a silent copyright licence does not pass on. Combining a licence that is silent about endorsement with one that permits it shows a conflict marked as coming from this rule.

Basis Trademark and name rights are separate from copyright: Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 article 9 lets the proprietor of an EU trade mark prevent all third parties not having his consent from using the sign in the course of trade, and Directive (EU) 2015/2436 article 10, 15 U.S.C. 1114 and 1125(a), section 12 BGB and section 43 ABGB protect marks and names in the same way. The library's evidence is Creative Commons 4.0 section 2(b)(2): Patent and trademark rights are not licensed under this Public License. A copyright licence that is silent grants no right to use the licensor's name or marks to suggest endorsement (Worldwide)

Further terms

These are the things the license says about itself beyond the acts it permits, forbids and requires: when it ends, how long there is to put a breach right, which law governs it, and so on. A term that comes from the DALICC vocabulary links to its definition.

Or later version option: No
Reciprocity scope: the library, not object code that incorporates limited material from its unmodified header files
Terminates on breach: Yes

Clauses

Warranty disclaimer

BECAUSE THE LIBRARY IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE LIBRARY, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE LIBRARY "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE LIBRARY IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE LIBRARY PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

Limitation of liability

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE LIBRARY AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE LIBRARY (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE LIBRARY TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Accepting warranty or additional liability

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

Additional clauses

As an exception to the Sections above, you may also combine or link a "work that uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work containing portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification of the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications. You must give prominent notice with each copy of the work that the Library is used in it and that the Library and its use are covered by this License. You must supply a copy of this License. If the work during execution displays copyright notices, you must include the copyright notice for the Library among them, as well as a reference directing the user to the copy of this License. Also, you must do one of these things: a) Accompany the work with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code for the Library including whatever changes were used in the work (which must be distributed under Sections 1 and 2 above); and, if the work is an executable linked with the Library, with the complete machine-readable "work that uses the Library", as object code and/or source code, so that the user can modify the Library and then relink to produce a modified executable containing the modified Library. (It is understood that the user who changes the contents of definitions files in the Library will not necessarily be able to recompile the application to use the modified definitions.) b) Use a suitable shared library mechanism for linking with the Library. A suitable mechanism is one that (1) uses at run time a copy of the library already present on the user's computer system, rather than copying library functions into the executable, and (2) will operate properly with a modified version of the library, if the user installs one, as long as the modified version is interface-compatible with the version that the work was made with. c) Accompany the work with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give the same user the materials specified in Subsection 6a, above, for a charge no more than the cost of performing this distribution. d) If distribution of the work is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, offer equivalent access to copy the above specified materials from the same place. e) Verify that the user has already received a copy of these materials or that you have already sent this user a copy. For an executable, the required form of the "work that uses the Library" must include any data and utility programs needed for reproducing the executable from it. However, as a special exception, the materials to be distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable. It may happen that this requirement contradicts the license restrictions of other proprietary libraries that do not normally accompany the operating system. Such a contradiction means you cannot use both them and the Library together in an executable that you distribute. 7. You may place library facilities that are a work based on the Library side-by-side in a single library together with other library facilities not covered by this License, and distribute such a combined library, provided that the separate distribution of the work based on the Library and of the other library facilities is otherwise permitted, and provided that you do these two things: a) Accompany the combined library with a copy of the same work based on the Library, uncombined with any other library facilities. This must be distributed under the terms of the Sections above. b) Give prominent notice with the combined library of the fact that part of it is a work based on the Library, and explaining where to find the accompanying uncombined form of the same work.

Info

Target asset types: Software
Region / jurisdiction: Worldwide
Validity: Perpetual
Source: https://spdx.org/licenses/Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1.html
Legal code: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1-standalone.html
This description is published under: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Publisher: Free Software Foundation
SPDX identifier: LGPL-2.1-only WITH Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1 on the SPDX license list
DALICC identifier: LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1

This record is published under CC BY 4.0. Credit it as: DALICC License Library, DALICC - Verein zur Förderung der Rechtssicherheit in der Datenbewirtschaftung, https://dalicc.net, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The license it describes belongs to its publisher.

Use this license

Everything below is generated from this record. Replace the example address with the address of your own work.

JSON sidecar

{
  "license-uri": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1",
  "license-title": "GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1",
  "spdx-id": "LGPL-2.1-only WITH Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1",
  "attribution": "Copyright (c) [year] [copyright holder]",
  "asset": null,
  "generated-by": "DALICC"
}

RDF, Turtle

@prefix cc: <http://creativecommons.org/ns#> .

<https://example.org/my-work>
    cc:license <https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1> .

RDF, JSON-LD

{
  "@context": {
    "cc": "http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
  },
  "@id": "https://example.org/my-work",
  "cc:license": {
    "@id": "https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1"
  }
}

HTML attribution

<p>This work is licensed under <a href="https://dalicc.net/licenselibrary/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1" rel="license">GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1</a>.</p>

This license asks for attribution, so the credit line is part of it.

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Markdown

[![License: GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1](https://dalicc.net/license-library/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1/badge.svg)](https://dalicc.net/license-library/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1)

HTML

<a href="https://dalicc.net/license-library/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1"><img src="https://dalicc.net/license-library/LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1/badge.svg" alt="License: GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with Qt LGPL exception 1.1"></a>

Review

Written from the license text by: Giray Havur
Written on: 2026-09-22
Second review: not yet done
Record changed since this review: yes (version 2, 2026-09-24)
Findings: 15 recorded, 13 applied to the record, 0 proposed

The record models GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only with the exception the SPDX list calls Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1. It copies the model of LGPL-2.1-only statement for statement and adds what the exception grants. The exception lets object code that incorporates limited material from the unmodified header files of the library travel under terms of your choice. The copyleft of the base licence still reaches the library, not object code that incorporates limited material from its unmodified header files, and the exception text is quoted in full in dalicc:additionalClauses.

15 findings

info Rubric 1 spdx:licenseId applied

The file name, the identifier and the local name of the odrl:Set IRI are all LGPL-2.1-only-with-Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1. spdx:licenseId carries the SPDX expression "LGPL-2.1-only WITH Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1", with one space, an upper-case WITH and one more space, which is how the SPDX list writes a licence combined with an exception.
info Rubric 2 odrl:target applied

One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dcmitype:Software, copied from LGPL-2.1-only. The exception speaks of code, modules and executables throughout.
major Rubric 3 odrl:permission applied

Section 1 grants the verbatim-copy right and section 2 the right to modify the Library and to distribute the modified work, so the record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, commercial use, derivative works and modified works. The record therefore keeps every permission of LGPL-2.1-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: "As an additional permission to the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1, the object code form of a "work that uses the Library" may incorporate material from a header file that is part of the Library. You may distribute such object code under terms of your choice, provided that: (i) the header files of the Library have not been modified; and (ii) the incorporated material is limited to numerical parameters, data structure layouts, accessors, macros, inline functions and templates; and (iii) you comply with the terms of Section 6 of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1." That is material the licence carves out of its own condition, so it is modelled as a permission dalicc:exceptedCombination.
major Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

The prohibitions of LGPL-2.1-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. Section 5 of the base licence makes object code that incorporates header material a derivative of the Library. The exception lifts that result for a narrow class of header material and leaves the rest of the licence in place.
minor Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

dalicc:promote is prohibited because LGPL-2.1-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.
info Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

LGPL-2.1-only prohibits dalicc:sublicense on the strength of section 8, "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, link with, or distribute the Library except as expressly provided under this License", and this record keeps that prohibition. It is the one record of the set with three prohibitions instead of two, because its base has three.
major Rubric 5 odrl:duty applied

The licence-wide cc:ShareAlike duty of LGPL-2.1-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. The carve-out carries three conditions, and the third is a cross-reference: "you comply with the terms of Section 6 of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1". Section 6 is already quoted in dalicc:additionalClauses on the base record and its duties are already modelled on odrl:distribute, so the dalicc:exceptedCombination permission carries no duty of its own and the three conditions stay in the quoted clause.
minor Rubric 5 dalicc:reciprocityScope applied

dalicc:reciprocityScope says in words how far the copyleft reaches after the exception: "the library, not object code that incorporates limited material from its unmodified header files". The base record carries no such annotation, because without the exception the reciprocity reaches the whole work.
major Rubric 6 dalicc:additionalClauses applied

The exception text is quoted verbatim as one literal of dalicc:additionalClauses, from https://spdx.org/licenses/Qt-LGPL-exception-1.1.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 LGPL-2.1-only, quoted verbatim from the base text, because the exception changes neither.
info Rubric 7 cc:jurisdiction applied

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.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:exceptedCombination applied

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.
gap Rubric 8 dalicc:additionalClauses none

The exception may be dropped. The text says: "Furthermore, you are not required to apply this additional permission to a modified version of the Library." Nothing in the vocabulary says that a permission is optional for a downstream modifier, so a copy of this work may carry the base licence alone and still be true to the text. Proposed term: dalicc:removableAdditionalPermission, an annotation saying that a modifier may delete the exception statement.
info Rubric 9 record none

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.
info Rubric 10 dalicc:variantOf applied

The record is the base licence plus the exception, so it repeats LGPL-2.1-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:LGPL-2.1-only. Nothing the base states was removed.
minor Rubric 4 odrl:prohibition applied

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.

Report an issue The review record as JSON The review checks the model against the license text. It is not legal advice.

History

This license model has 2 versions. Version 2 is the one served today; every earlier version keeps its own address, so a conclusion drawn from one of them can still be checked against it.

Version 2 current2026-09-24 Giray Havur

The changes since version 1 left endorsement to the default rule of the core dependency graph, recorded which sentence of the text each statement rests on and named the license the record itself is published under.

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7 changes
- removed prohibition dalicc:promote
  
  Manual edit The endorsement prohibition rested on no sentence of the text; the default rule for endorsement now supplies it.
- changed duty cc:ShareAlike
  
  was duty cc:ShareAlike
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You must cause the whole of the work to be licensed at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License."
- changed permission dalicc:exceptedCombination
  
  was permission dalicc:exceptedCombination
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "As an exception to the Sections above, you may also combine or link a "work that uses the Library" with the Library to produce a work containing portions of the Library, and distribute that work under terms of your choice, provided that the terms permit modification of the work for the customer's own use and reverse engineering for debugging such modifications."
- changed permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]
  
  was permission odrl:derive with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]
  
  Manual edit Its duty dalicc:modificationNotice quotes "You must cause the files modified to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change."
- changed permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]
  
  was permission odrl:modify with duties [cc:Attribution, cc:Notice, cc:SourceCode, dalicc:modificationNotice]
  
  Manual edit Its duty dalicc:modificationNotice quotes "You must cause the files modified to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change."
- changed prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  was prohibition dalicc:sublicense
  
  Manual edit The statement now quotes the sentence of the licence text it rests on: "You may not copy, modify, sublicense, link with, or distribute the Library except as expressly provided under this License."
- added dct:license <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
  
  Manual edit Every record is published under CC BY 4.0. cc:license names the record DALICC keeps of that licence; dct:license now names it by the address Creative Commons publishes it at, so that a consumer matching the canonical IRI finds it.
Version 1

Created from the license text on 2026-09-22 (GNU copyleft family (GPL, LGPL, AGPL, FDL)).

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Every change names the reason behind it: a finding of the content review, one of its library-wide decisions, the metadata that review wrote onto every record, or a hand edit. None of it is legal advice.

Nothing on this page is legal advice. What a license means is decided by its text; ask a legal advisor before you rely on it.