[Boost-users] Ownership of Boost IP?

From: Nat Goodspeed (ngoodspeed_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-08-03 19:39:17

My employer's legal department has just stated that we may not use Boost
for product development because of a hypothetical lawsuit risk. The
reasoning appears to be that some party might rise up and claim that
parts of one or more Boost libraries actually belong to it: that an
individual developer, perhaps unknowingly, submitted code that was not
his to give away because it rightfully belongs to his employer. In this
horrid fantasy, the employer would then sue many parties, including
anyone who has ever incorporated the affected Boost library into their
own products.

The SCO lawsuits make it tough to dismiss such arguments out of hand.

This is disturbing on a number of levels. I want to marshal whatever
counterarguments I can quickly assemble. If it states anywhere on the
Boost web site that the Boost organization certifies its implementation
IP clean... sorry, I wasn't really expecting that. But anything whatever
that would bolster the case against this paranoia would be extremely
helpful.

Thank you!