Jonathan Wakely wrote: [...]
As I understand it (which is not in *any* way authoritative) if the authors give permission for me to use the code under the GPL (which I think amounts to dual-licensing it to me as Boost and GPL?) then I am free to modify their original code, still under the GPL. The modified version then has my copyright (which I assign to the FSF) _and_ the original authors copyright statements on.
Alexander, whatever your views on whether the GPL can be upheld, you seem to be pretty knowledgable on copyright issues, have I got it even partly right?
I think you got it right. The only question is how much of original and derivative (colloquially) work "deserves" the copyright protection. I bet that in the case of SmartPtr, when honestly applied, filtration step of the AFC test will entirely eliminate copyright protection for any decent implementation. regards, alexander.