On 9 April 2017 at 22:22, Peter Dimov via Boost
Niall Douglas wrote:
They had bought a full owning copy from the IP originators, which is also
possible BTW, ...
Not necessarily. It's possible under American copyright law, not possible under at least some European copyright laws. You can only get a full owning copy if it's work for hire (in which case you become the owner of the work). You can never get a full owning copy by buying it from the owner. Ownership is fixed at the moment of creation and is not for sale.
That is correct, IANAL, but my understanding is that French law does not allow transfer of ownership of intellectual property, and that it stays with the author until death. In any case, I am listed as one of the main authors in legally-binding registrations of various pieces of software managed by the University of Paris-Sud, including NT2 on which this library is based on, and would have to give my agreement for any special licensing deal. This is mostly a technicality, as all of this is licensed under the Boost Software License and there are little damages to speak of, but still something that needs fixing.