[geos-devel] Boost License compatibility

[Paul Ramsey]

Definitely an "ask your lawyer". Our feeling when porting JTS to C++
was that the port was still a "derived work" and should retain the
LGPL license of the original work. However, that was merely a feeling,
I have no idea where the grey areas lie in things like algorithm
porting.

P.

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 2:20 PM, Mateusz Loskot <mateusz at loskot.net> wrote:
> Paul Ramsey wrote:
>> Since you're talking about taking a small snippet of LGPL and putting
>>  it into a larger chunk of Boost, probably you will get no definitive
>>  answer, since it hinges on whether your new combined result is a
>> "derived work" (in which case it's LGPL) or not (in which case it can
>>  be Boost).  The "safe" black-and-white answer is that combining
>> anything from a *GPL project with another compatibly-licensed project
>>  creates a *GPL resultant.
>
> All this makes sense and seems to be best approach. Thanks!
>
> Slightly changing my original question.
> Let's assume no code is copied.
> Is it safe to "translate" or let's say rewrite some parts of
> implementation of algorithms available in GEOS, using different
> types, different idioms, different C++ constructions, etc.
> and license such work under the terms of Boost License?
>
> Best regards,
>
> p.s. I understand that the best answer is
> probably "Ask your lawyer!", so sorry for bothering
> if it's OT here.
>
> --
> Mateusz Loskot, http://mateusz.loskot.net
> Charter Member of OSGeo, http://osgeo.org
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