> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of David B. Held > > I think the problem is that the entire clause can be viewed as disclaiming > warranties against patent infringement/copyright violation/etc. The > question is whether it is possible to protect both library authors and > potential users. I don't see where else the buck can get passed. Perhaps > a special clause that the software does not infringe on any known > patents or copyrights, but comes with no other warranties? I have no idea > what the legal status of such claims are, however. > > Dave
In practice, Boost authors (and reviewers) will have made their best efforts to ensure that they don't know of any patent infringement and/or copyright violations. Perhaps we can say this without exposing the authors to too much risk? (As David rightly observes, I am not worth suing!) But ultimately, the user must surely assess and take the risk. However, a statement "not known to infringe copyright or patent" may help the user assess the risk. Paul PS As example of the morass we are in, I would like to submit a revised (by me for C++) FFT algorithm (originally in C) which contains the following notes: ** NOTE: This routine uses at least 2 patented algorithms, and may be ** under the restrictions of a bunch of different organizations. ** Although I wrote it completely myself; it is kind of a derivative ** of a routine I once authored and released under the GPL, so it ** may fall under the free software foundation's restrictions; ** it was worked on as a Stanford Univ project, so they claim ** some rights to it; it was further optimized at work here, so ** I think this company (Acuson?) claims parts of it. The patents are ** held by R. Bracewell (the FHT algorithm) and O. Buneman (the ** trig generator), both at Stanford Univ. ** If it were up to me, I'd say go do whatever you want with it; ** but it would be polite to give credit to the following people ** if you use this anywhere: ** Euler - probable inventor of the Fourier transform. ** Gauss - probable inventor of the FFT. ** Hartley - probable inventor of the Hartley transform. ** Buneman - for a really cool trig generator ** Mayer(me) - for authoring this particular version and ** including all the optimizations in one package. ** Thanks, ** Ron Mayer; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Not to mention, Cooley, Tukey and Bracewell! And the patents have probably expired by now... _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost
