[boost] Re: Copyright

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-08-27 09:25:12

Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> writes:
>> > Could you clarify? To be exactly specific, if I have a file with the
>> > following content, as a part of Boost.Build test:
>> >
>> >   int main() { return 0; }
>> >
>> > why does it need copyright?
>>
>> Files without copyrights make corporate lawyers nervous, and that's a
>> barrier to adoption.  If everything in Boost is copyrighted, there
>> won't be any problem with dropping a Boost release on a corporate
>> server.
>
> *Any* file without copyright? What about 'boost.css' or 'c++boost.gif' for 
> example? What about BoostBook DTD, which has the following:
>
>    Copyright (c) 2002 by Peter Simons <simons_at_[hidden]>.
>    All Rights Reserved.

Obviously there are some files whose copyright/license can't be
changed.

> What about tools/regression/xsl_reports/merger/__init__.py
>
> And, for a completely interesting question, whose copyright should be on 
> 'status/explicit-failures-markup.xml'? Of all the authors?
>
> The reason I'm asking all this is that it seems that a lot effort was already 
> spend to add copyrights, and more is likely to be spend and I find it hard to 
> believe that lawyers will examine every single file of Boost. Maybe, just 
> headers and the code which goes into compiled libraries really need to be 
> license-clean.

The more things we can easily license/copyright, the fewer questions
the lawyers will have. 
-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com