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<title>Boost Software License</title>
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<div class="section" id="intro">
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<div class="section-0">
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<div class="section-title">
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<h1>Boost Software License</h1>
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</div>
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<div class="section-body">
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<ul class="toc">
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<li><a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">License text</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a></li>
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<li><a href="#History">History</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Rationale">Rationale</a></li>
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<li><a href="#FAQ">FAQ</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Transition">Transition</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="Introduction" id=
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"Introduction"></a>Introduction</h2>
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<p>The <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">Boost Software License</a>
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specifies the terms and conditions of use for those Boost
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libraries that it covers.</p>
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<p>Currently, some Boost libraries have their own licenses. The
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hope is that eventually all Boost libraries will be covered by
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the Boost Software License. In the meantime, <b>all</b>
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libraries comply with the <a href="#requirements">Boost License
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requirements</a>.</p>
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<h2><a name="History" id="History"></a>History</h2>
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<p>As Boost grew, it became unmanageable for each Boost file to
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have its own license. Users complained that each license needed
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to be reviewed, and that reviews were difficult or impossible
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if Boost libraries contained many different licenses. Boost
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moderators and maintainers spent excessive time dealing with
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license issues. Boost developers often copied existing licenses
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without actually knowing if the license wording met legal
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needs.</p>
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<p>To clarify these licensing issues, the Boost moderators
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asked for help from the <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu"
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class="external">Berkman Center for Internet & Society</a>
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at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. <a name=
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"requirements" id="requirements"></a>It was requested that a
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single Boost license be developed that met the traditional
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requirements that Boost licenses, particularly:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Must be simple to read and understand.</li>
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<li>Must grant permission without fee to copy, use and modify
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the software for any use (commercial and
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non-commercial).</li>
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<li>Must require that the license appear with all copies
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[including redistributions] of the software source code.</li>
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<li>Must not require that the license appear with executables
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or other binary uses of the library.</li>
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<li>Must not require that the source code be available for
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execution or other binary uses of the library.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Additionally, other common open source licenses were studied
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to see what additional issues were being treated, and additions
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representing good legal practice were also requested. The
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result is the <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">Boost Software
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License</a>:</p>
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<pre>
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<!--#include virtual="../LICENSE_1_0.txt" -->
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</pre>
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<h2><a name="Rationale" id="Rationale"></a>Rationale</h2>
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<p>The following rationale was provided by Devin Smith, the
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lawyer who wrote the Boost Software License. It has been edited
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slightly for brevity. Editorial additions are shown in square
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brackets.</p>
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<h3>Benefit of Common Software License</h3>
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<p>If one of Boost's goals is to ease use and adoption of the
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various libraries made available by Boost, it does make sense
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to try to standardize the licenses under which the libraries
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are made available to users. (I make some recommendations about
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a possible short-form license below.)</p>
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<p>[Standardizing the license will not] necessarily address the
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issue of satisfying corporate licensees. Each corporation will
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have its own concerns, based on their own experiences with
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software licensing and distribution and, if they're careful,
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will want to carefully review each license, even if they've
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been told that they're all standard. I would expect that,
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unless we're remarkably brilliant (or lucky) in drafting the
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standard Boost license, the standard license won't satisfy the
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legal departments of all corporations. I imagine that some
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will, for instance, absolutely insist that licensors provide a
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warranty of title and provide indemnification for third-party
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intellectual property infringement claims. Others may want
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functional warranties. (If I were advising the corporations, I
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would point out that they're not paying anything for the code
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and getting such warranties from individual programmers, who
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probably do not have deep pockets, is not that valuable anyway,
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but other lawyers may disagree.)</p>
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<p>But this can be addressed, not by trying to craft the
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perfect standard license, but by informing the corporations
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that they can, if they don't like the standard license,
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approach the authors to negotiate a different, perhaps even
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paid, license.</p>
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<p>One other benefit of adopting a standard license is to help
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ensure that the license accomplishes, from a legal perspective,
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what the authors intend. For instance, many of the [original]
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licenses for the libraries available on boost.org do not
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disclaim the warranty of title, meaning that the authors could,
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arguably, be sued by a user if the code infringes the rights of
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a third party and the user is sued by that third party. I think
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the authors probably want to disclaim this kind of
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liability.</p>
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<h3>Short-Form License</h3>
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<p>Without in anyway detracting from the draft license that's
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been circulated [to Boost moderators], I'd like to propose an
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alternative "short-form" license that Boost could have the
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library authors adopt. David [Abrahams] has expressed a desire
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to keep things as simple as possible, and to try to move away
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from past practice as little as possible, and this is my
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attempt at a draft.</p>
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<p>This license, which is very similar to the BSD license and
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the MIT license, should satisfy the Open Source Initiative's
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Open Source Definition: (i) the license permits free
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redistribution, (ii) the distributed code includes source code,
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(iii) the license permits the creation of derivative works,
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(iv) the license does not discriminate against persons or
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groups, (v) the license does not discriminate against fields of
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endeavor, (vi) the rights apply to all to whom the program is
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redistributed, (vii) the license is not specific to a product,
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and (viii) the license is technologically neutral (i.e., it
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does not [require] an explicit gesture of assent in order to
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establish a contract between licensor and licensee).</p>
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<p>This license grants all rights under the owner's copyrights
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(as well as an implied patent license), disclaims all liability
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for use of the code (including intellectual property
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infringement liability), and requires that all subsequent
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copies of the code [except machine-executable object code],
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including partial copies and derivative works, include the
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license.</p>
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<h2><a name="FAQ" id="FAQ"></a>FAQ</h2>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">How should Boost
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programmers apply the license to source and header
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files?</span> <span class="faq-answer">Add a comment based on
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the following template, substituting appropriate text for the
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italicized portion:</span></p>
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<pre>
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// Copyright <i>Joe Coder 2004 - 2006</i>.
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// Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
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// (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
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// https://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt)
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</pre>
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<p>Please leave an empty line before and after the above
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comment block. It is fine if the copyright and license messages
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are not on different lines; in no case there should be other
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intervening text. Do not include "All rights reserved"
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anywhere.</p>
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<p>Other ways of licensing source files have been considered,
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but some of them turned out to unintentionally nullify legal
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elements of the license. Having fixed language for referring to
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the license helps corporate legal departments evaluate the
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boost distribution. Creativity in license reference language is
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strongly discouraged, but judicious changes in the use of
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whitespace are fine.</p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">How should the
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license be applied to documentation files, instead?</span>
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<span class="faq-answer">Very similarly to the way it is
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applied to source files: the user should see the very same text
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indicated in the template above, with the only difference that
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both the local and the web copy of LICENSE_1_0.txt should be
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linked to. Refer to the HTML source code of this page in case
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of doubt.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">How should Boost
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programmers maintain the copyright messages?</span>
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<span class="faq-answer">Copyright is only claimed for changes
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meeting a certain threshold of originality. Therefore, the copyright
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message only covers expressions of creativity. It is up to authors of
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changes to add themselves to the copyright message if they so decide.
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Typically, new claimant is added when someone takes over maintenance
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of a library or new version of an existing library is developed.
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In principle, do not ever remove previous copyright claims -
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just add new claims and/or claimants.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">How is the Boost
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license different from the <a href=
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"https://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php" class=
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"external">GNU General Public License (GPL)</a>?</span>
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<span class="faq-answer">The Boost license permits the creation
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of derivative works for commercial or non-commercial use with
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no legal requirement to release your source code.</span> Other
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differences include Boost not requiring reproduction of
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copyright messages for object code redistribution, and the fact
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that the Boost license is not "viral": if you distribute your
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own code along with some Boost code, the Boost license applies
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only to the Boost code (and modified versions thereof); you are
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free to license your own code under any terms you like. The GPL
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is also much longer, and thus may be harder to understand.</p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Why the phrase
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"machine-executable object code generated by a source language
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processor"?</span> <span class="faq-answer">To distinguish
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cases where we do not require reproduction of the copyrights
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and license, such as object libraries, shared libraries, and
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final program executables, from cases where reproduction is
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still required, such as distribution of self-extracting
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archives of source code or precompiled header files. More
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detailed wording was rejected as not being legally necessary,
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and reducing readability.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Why is the
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"disclaimer" paragraph of the license entirely in
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uppercase?</span> <span class="faq-answer">Capitalization of
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these particular provisions is a US legal mandate for consumer
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protection. (Diane Cabell)</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Does the copyright
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and license cover interfaces too?</span> <span class=
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"faq-answer">The conceptual interface to a library isn't
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covered. The particular representation expressed in the header
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is covered, as is the documentation, examples, test programs,
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and all the other material that goes with the library. A
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different implementation is free to use the same logical
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interface, however. Interface issues have been fought out in
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court several times; ask a lawyer for details.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Why doesn't the
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license prohibit the copyright holder from patenting the
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covered software?</span> <span class="faq-answer">No one who
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distributes their code under the terms of this license could
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turn around and sue a user for patent infringement. (Devin
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Smith)</span></p>
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<p>Boost's lawyers were well aware of patent provisions in
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licenses like the GPL and CPL, and would have included such
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provisions in the Boost license if they were believed to be
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legally useful.</p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Why doesn't the
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copyright message say "All rights reserved"?</span>
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<span class="faq-answer">Devin Smith says "I don't think it
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belongs in the copyright notice for anything (software,
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electronic documentation, etc.) that is being licensed. It
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belongs in books that are sold where, in fact, all rights
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(e.g., to reproduce the book, etc.) are being reserved in the
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publisher or author. I think it shouldn't be in the BSD
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license."</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Do I have to
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copyright/license trivial files?</span> <span class=
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"faq-answer">Even a test file that just contains an empty
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<code>main()</code> should have a copyright. Files without
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copyrights make corporate lawyers nervous, and that's a barrier
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to adoption. The more of Boost is uniformly copyrighted and
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licensed, the less problem people will have with mounting a
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Boost release CD on a corporate server.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><span class="faq-question">Can I use the Boost
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license for my own projects outside Boost?</span> <span class=
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"faq-answer">Sure; there are no restrictions on the use of the
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license itself.</span></p>
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<p class="faq"><a href=
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"https://opensource.org/docs/definition.php"><img src=
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"https://opensource.org/trademarks/opensource/web/opensource-110x95.png"
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alt="Open Source (OSI) Logo" class=
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"inset-right" /></a><span class="faq-question">Is the Boost
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license "<a href="https://opensource.org/docs/osd" class=
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"external">Open Source</a>"?</span> <span class=
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"faq-answer">Yes. The <a href="https://opensource.org/"
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class="external">Open Source Initiative</a> certified the
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<a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/bsl1.0.html" class=
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"external">Boost Software License 1.0</a> in early
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2008.</span></p>
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<h2><a name="Transition" id="Transition"></a>Transition</h2>
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<p>To ease the transition of the code base towards the new
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common license, several people decided to give a <a href=
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"/doc/libs/release/more/blanket-permission.txt">blanket
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permission</a> for all their contributions to use the new
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license. This hopefully helps maintainers to switch to the new
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license once the list contains enough names without asking over
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and over again for each change. Please consider adding your
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name to the list.</p>
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<h2><a name="Acknowledgements" id=
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"Acknowledgements"></a>Acknowledgements</h2>
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<p>Dave Abrahams led the Boost effort to develop better
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licensing. The legal team was led by <a href=
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"http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/cabell/" class=
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"external">Diane Cabell</a>, Director, Clinical Programs,
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<a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/" class=
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"external">Berkman Center for Internet & Society</a>,
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Harvard Law School. <a href=
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"http://www.nixonpeabody.com/attorneys_detail1.asp?ID=121"
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class="external">Devin Smith</a>, attorney, <a href=
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"http://www.nixonpeabody.com/" class="external">Nixon Peabody
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LLP</a>, wrote the Boost License. Eva Chan, Harvard Law School,
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contributed analysis of Boost issues and drafts of various
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legal documents. Boost members reviewed drafts of the license.
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Beman Dawes wrote this web page.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="footer">
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<div id="footer-left">
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<div id="revised">
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<p>Revised $Date$</p>
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</div>
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<div id="copyright">
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<p>Copyright Beman Dawes, Daniel Frey, David Abrahams, 2003-2004.</p>
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<p>Copyright Rene Rivera 2004-2005.</p>
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</div><!--#include virtual="/common/footer-license.html" -->
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</div>
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