[boost] Re: License oddity

From: Gennaro Prota (gennaro_prota_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-04-04 05:19:09

On Sat, 03 Apr 2004 23:21:02 -0500, David Abrahams
<dave_at_[hidden]> wrote:

>
>I just noticed something strange about the license.  It seems to
>require that derivative works and copies don't use the "by reference"
>technique we're using to refer to the license in our own sources:
>
>  The copyright notices in the Software and this entire statement,
>  including the above license grant, this restriction and the
>  following disclaimer, must be included in all copies of the
>  Software, in whole or in part, and all derivative works of the
>  Software...
>
>I'm beginning to wonder if the current "by reference" technique is
>really compatible with the license.  Will the intrigue never end?

I noticed the same, but I think the underlying idea is that "Software"
is the whole "package" you distribute. So, as long as your .zip, .tar,
.tar.gz or maybe even a set of separate files, that you distribute
contains (in the set-theoretical sense) the license text somewhere
(for instance in its own file LICENSE_1_0.txt) it's ok.

IIUC correctly, even the copyright notice(s) could be in a separate
file, which isn't even required to be the same of the license text.
For instance I could distribute a tarball containing:

 - noncopyable.hpp (with the copyright/license comments removed)
 - copy_right.txt  (with "(C) Copyright David Abrahams" etc.)
 - LICENSE_1_0.txt

With just one precaution: the license text says

  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person or
  organization obtaining a copy of the software and accompanying
  documentation **covered by this license**

Does including LICENSE_1_0.txt in the tarball *cause* the remaining
files to be covered by the license therein? If not, then you have to
put at least a comment saying "Covered by the Boost Software License -
Version 1.0 - See etc. etc." in each file. But it seems to me that the
copyright notices could still be elsewhere, at least as far as the
license text says. There could be other rules/laws that impose to keep
them together with the source code, though, I don't know. Of course:
namespace boost { using std_disclaimer::IANAL; }

Genny.