RE: [boost] Request for license review

From: Gary Powell (powellg_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-11-16 11:33:45

>>
For my products (video games), I'm not sure how to interpret the following
lines in the license document:

*Any redistribution and/or modification of the software shall be accompanied
by this README file.

*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."

If I use your libraries in one of my games, how am I supposed to comply with
the two points?  I'm sure embedded systems guys understand my concern.  On
some machines, I don't have a file system, so how can I include a README?
Even if I included the README distributed with a source code library, what
purpose would it serve for the end user because I'm not shipping the source
as such?   Or is a compiled version of source considered neither ther
"software" itself or a "modification" thereof.  Where do I acknowledge
Fermi?  In a video game, do I put it on the media, the box, in the manual,
or on some credit screen in the game?

I realize that most people using boost are not video games guys, but as I
said above, I think the embedded guys have a similar view.  Other than that,
as a person who is a programmer and not a lawyer, I didn't have any
questions or issues with the license.

<<
As a former game programmer, the way to acknowledge the credit is in the
"Credits window." The readme can be shipped on the DVD, so what if no one
can actually read it.

For embedded systems, i.e. your auto heating control system, the
acknowledgement would be in the Car owners manual, but the "Readme" file is
clearly not going along.

If I were you, I'd modify it to say, that if the source was distributed,
then the README accompany that.

  I'm not a lawyer, but sometimes I act like one, your honor.
   -Gary-