RE: [boost] Draft of new Boost Software License

From: Beman Dawes (bdawes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-06-26 18:15:11

At 07:35 AM 6/26/2003, Matt Hurd wrote:

 >"Is my work a derivate work?", I guess is the gist of the question. How
 >do you firewall it?  Does a contract with a third party need to address
 >the boundary of boost code (which maybe modified and embedded or not)
 >and the proprietary code.

Serious answers to those questions are way too complex for an email reply. 
I'm not qualified in any case. Your best bet is to buy a book on the topic. 
Perhaps "Copyright Your Software" by Stephen Fishman. See 
http://www.nolo.com/lawstore/products/product.cfm/ObjectID/991DEF76-7EAC-402F-A36984BEADE9DB53

(I haven't read it. I've got an older book, How to Copyright Software" by 
MJ Salone, from the same publisher, but it is now out-of-print. It is 
available used on Amazon.)

 >
 >__________
 >
 >If I have the desire to license source code, which uses boost code, to a
 >third party, on the basis that my code may not be redistributed then
 >this statement confuses the issue if I am a derivative work.
 >
 >For example, I build a risk system for an asset manager.  I use some
 >boost, perhaps modified.  I include the license as required... and I get
 >confused trying to separate the consequences in a contract with the
 >third party.  I had one such messy contract that took over a year to
 >resolve to mutual agreement :-(
 >
 >Perhaps this is a non issue as the issue may exist for alternative
 >licenses.

I think other licenses have the same problem. I ran into it years before 
Boost, and solved it by keeping the open-source code clearly separated from 
the proprietary (and actually delivered on separate disks, to emphasize the 
difference.) The proprietary code used the open-source code, but was not 
derived from the open-source code. Use is one thing, derivation is 
another.
 >PS:  does #include <boost/any_old_header.hpp> make you a derived work?

No. That is use, but not derivation. But if instead of #include, you pasted 
in a legally significant portion of <boost/any_old_header.hpp>, that would 
make your program a derived work. Note that if you pasted in code from 
several sources, your code might become a derived work of each of those 
sources.

HTH,

--Beman