Github project license based on multiple licenses - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Martin F
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2019, 12:29:28 pm
content: Hi all,We've done a small file converter project for our hardware and we'd like to release the source code on github as open source.Ideally, we'd want our project to use an overall MIT license.However, we have the following dependencies:- Boost:https://www.boost.org/- tinyxml12:https://github.com/leethomason/tinyxml2- date:https://github.com/HowardHinnant/dateWhile date also has an MIT license, the two others have less common licenses, namely the Boost License (https://www.boost.org/users/license.html) and the zLib license (https://github.com/leethomason/tinyxml2/blob/master/LICENSE.txt).We've tried to read up on how to properly write the licensing section of our github repo in such a situation, but we still struggle to get it right.Our initial thinking has been to add a section similar to below at the end of our README and then use MIT as our overall license. But we'd like to hear your thoughts on whether this is an appropriate approach or not.Code:### DependenciesThe project uses the following external libraries, apart from the standard library for C++17:- (https://www.boost.org/)- (https://github.com/leethomason/tinyxml2)- (https://github.com/HowardHinnant/date)#### Boost licenseCopyright Beman Dawes, Daniel Frey, David Abrahams, 2003-2004.Copyright Rene Rivera 2004-2005.Distributed under the [Boost Software License, Version 1.0](https://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt).#### tinyxml12 licenseThis software is provided 'as-is', without any express or impliedwarranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for anydamages arising from the use of this software.Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for anypurpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it andredistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you mustnot claim that you wrote the original software. If you use thissoftware in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentationwould be appreciated but is not required.2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, andmust not be misrepresented as being the original software.3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any sourcedistribution.Thanks,Martin

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 08, 2019, 01:18:27 pm
content: Just list the dependencies and choose a license for your project.

author: spongle
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2019, 12:56:20 pm
content: If you're only distributing source code you've written and not the dependencies themselves, you have no obligation under those licenses. Just mark your repo as MIT.In theory if you were distributing binaries linked to GPL'd dependencies, you could be obligated to release your code under the GPL as well, but this is far from proven.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2019, 01:53:59 pm
content: I would just mention those other projects as external dependencies and provide links to them, just as you did.Writing too much about the licencing stuff of those other project makes your own project harder to maintain.(What if those other licences change?)Even your notion that you are thinking about this kind of stuff makes your project above average (in the documentation department at least).

author: m98
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2019, 10:33:30 pm
content: Just opt out of the license crap, and unlicense (https://unlicense.org/) your code.