Re: [boost] Request for license review

From: David Abrahams (david.abrahams_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-11-15 20:07:31

I think there are two potentially problematic areas:

The User shall acknowledge the origin of the software as set forth below:
"This work was performed at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, operated
by Universities Research Association, Inc., under contract DE-AC02-76CH03000
with the U.S. Department of Energy."

The above has no legal value AFAICT, since it doesn't say anything about how
and/or where the acknowledgement must appear. The user could pronounce those
words as a form of acknowledgement, couldn't he? Anyway, this sort of thing,
though strictly speaking within boost guidelines, just discourages re-use by
people at other institutions that have lawyers of their own. We are
currently discussing the idea of moving to a single, uniform license and if
that happens it clearly won't be the FermiTools license, FWIW.

The other problematic thing is the clause about export controls.

Whether or not either of these contravenes the Boost license policies I
can't say.

----- Original Message -----
From: <wb_at_[hidden]>
To: <boost_at_[hidden]>
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 6:48 PM
Subject: [boost] Request for license review

> I am writing, in response to a request from my management, to ask
> assistance from knowledgeable Boosters regarding specific software
> licensing terms and conditions.
>
> My employer, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has for years made
> its software available under a licensing program known locally as
> Fermitools.  The most recent legal details of this are available at
>     http://fermitools.fnal.gov/about/terms.html
>
> Because I have software that I wish to contribute to Boost, I have been
> trying to obtain permission to do so.  The above Fermitools license has
> now been suggested to me as appropriate for this purpose, but I would
> appreciate explicit confirmation from Boosters to ensure that these
> licensing terms are indeed acceptable.  If it happens, for any reason,
> not to be an appropriate license, I would equally appreciate, to the
> extent possible, detailed comments regarding any specific concerns this
> license would engender in the Boost community.
>
> I hope to present, on Monday morning, a summary to my management of
> Boosters' responses to the proposed licensing terms, and extend my
> sincere thanks in advance to those who are in a position to review and
> address the proposal.
>
> - WEB
>
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