[geos-devel] Boost License compatibility

Greg Troxel gdt at ir.bbn.com
Wed Apr 8 18:02:48 EDT 2009


Mateusz Loskot <mateusz at loskot.net> writes:

> The question is like this:
>
> Can I copy lines 10-30 from GEOS source file a.cpp to project X which
> is licensed under the terms of Boost License?

If those lines are deemed to be non-trivial - and the rule of them is
that 10 or more lines are definitely non-trivial - then no, because you
have a derived work and can't distribute the LGPL code under the Boost
License.  If you read one line and write something to do a similar
algorithm but differently, almost certainly it's not a derived work and
the licnense of the inspirational work doesn't matter.  The middle
ground is hard and standard advice is not to skate near the edge of thin
ice.

> There is an existing code, project X licensed under Boost License.
> If I copy some work based on LGPL and include it in the X,
> can I still distribute X under the terms of Boost License?

Definitely not.

>> It's pretty clear the boost people would reject including LPGL code
>> in boost, if that's what you are asking.
>
> And this is something that is not clear or better, not obvious to me.

From reading their analysis of licenses, it seems clear to me that Boost
wants to allow proprietary use of boost.  This is the same licensing
goal as the BSDs, and it's different from the FSF goal.
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