Re: [boost] Documentation copyright in Boost

From: Rene Rivera (grafik.list_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-08-11 11:35:24

Jonathan Brandmeyer wrote:

> John Maddock's prodding with regard to copyright notices in Boost's
> sources got me thinking about the copyright notices in its
> documentation.
> 
> Currently, some docs have a copyright notice using the Boost Software
> License, some have a permissive license other than the BSL, and some
> just say "Copyright (c) DATE AUTHOR".  I haven't done a detailed survey;
> that observation is just based on a random browsing of the Boost docs.

For a less random survey see:

http://www.boost.org/regression-logs/license_report.html
Boost Inspection Report

> I generally believe in using the same copyright license for the
> documentation as the one used for the software, at least in the context
> of Free/Open Source Software.  That may or may not be entirely
> appropriate considering the BSL's particular language concerning
> compiled software.

As far a I understand the BSL, documentation is explicitly included in 
the "Software" (i.e. a library). So it follows that the same license is 
supposed to be applied to documentation.

As for compiled software... even though it is possible to "compile" 
documentation, that is do some processing and turn into something like 
PDF of CHTML. But for documentation that only changes the presentation 
and is covered by the "reproduce, display, distribute" grant not the 
compile grant (IANAL).

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