Cromwell Enage writes:

Good morning.

...

From previous posts regarding the License, I'm assuming the Legal Team

What is that? ;-)

is on this mailing list; if not, please direct me to them.

We have some lawyers who have *volunteered* to help us, but I don't think they want to be contacted directly by Boost users in general. I suppose that if that's not true they'll let us know. Further, it seems as though you (and several other people) should get your own lawyer to answer some of the questions being asked, as they are not directly related to Boost, and they require legal expertise to answer with authority.

Scenario I: I'm building a library that uses the Boost libraries (the ones covered by the current Boost Software License) and the Simple DirectMedia Layer, which is distributed under the terms of the GNU "Lesser" Public License http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lgpl.html. Can I release my library under the Boost Software License?

I am not qualified to comment on what's permissible for you to do with code licensed under the LGPL. You should be asking someone on the GNU project, or preferably, a lawyer.

Can I release it under the GNU LGPL?

Only if that doesn't violate the license terms of the Boost libraries you've used (**). Trying to interpret whether that's the case or not is certainly beyond me (IANAL). It seems to me that we can't ask our volunteer lawyers to draw up a list of answers to all the possible licensing questions along these lines, nor can we reasonably make them available as an on-demand resource for answering boost users' legal questions.

Or can I not release it at all?

Scenario II: I plan on building an application that uses the Boost libraries (the ones covered by the current Boost Software License) and the FOX GUI Toolkit, which is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. According to http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL, if I publicly distribute my application (e.g. via SourceForge.net), I must do so using the GNU GPL, since the FOX Toolkit is distributed under that license. Will the Boost Software License allow me to do this?

This question falls into a similar category. The terms of the Boost license should be reasonably easy to understand. You can make your own determination by analyzing the words, or (better), you can get the advice of a legal professional. ** and note that not all Boost libraries are using the Boost Software License (yet); for now you need to examine the notices in each library you use/distribute. -- Dave Abrahams Boost Consulting www.boost-consulting.com