Re: [Boost-Users] Permission to use?

At 7:07 AM -0700 5/6/02, Noel Yap wrote:

--- Douglas Gregor wrote:

...

On Monday 06 May 2002 09:20 am, you wrote:

...

My boss says he looked at the boost.org website and found that we must pay a fee per unit sold for any produced that uses the boost library. I say it is completly free, but I can't find anything on the website to back me up. All I have to go on is the copyright agreement at the top of each file.

Is there something on the web site I can point him to? TIA

The Boost library license requirements http://www.boost.org/more/lib_guide.htm#License

state:

"Must grant permission to copy, use and modify the software for any use (commercial and non-commercial) for no fee."

I believe this is for those that want to /contribute/ to the Boost project rather than those that want to /use/ the libraries.

Noel

An interesting point. The reason, of course that, this requirement exists is so that users may use the libraries without fee, but, as Noel points out, this statement only implies that, it doesn't say it explicitly. The boost.org home page has the statement "The Boost web site provides free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries." Perhaps the word "free" should have a link to a page that explains what users can and cannot do with Boost library sources (with some examples). Or is there some statement about permissions that is directed to users that I have missed? Given the existence to clueless bosses and worse company lawyers I don't think we can be too clear on this point. -- Jon Kalb Kalb@LibertySoft.com