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I'm integrating EASTL into my game programming framework. I did some changes to it since I have my own memory management sub-system and now I'm wondering what I need to do to not break the license under which EASTL was released.

The source code files include the following notice:

Copyright (C) 2005,2009-2010 Electronic Arts, Inc. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. Neither the name of Electronic Arts, Inc. ("EA") nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ELECTRONIC ARTS OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Since I will probably be releasing the source code on GitHub at some point, but do not plan on releasing any binaries without source code, can I just add something similar to my own source files and be okay with this? Will something like the following do?

/* * Copyright (c) 2012 Bartlomiej Siwek All rights reserved. * Based on EASTL (https://github.com/paulhodge/EASTL) - copyright information follows. */ /* * Copyright (C) 2005,2009-2010 Electronic Arts, Inc. All rights reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * 3. Neither the name of Electronic Arts, Inc. ("EA") nor the names of * its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived * from this software without specific prior written permission. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ELECTRONIC ARTS AND ITS CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ELECTRONIC ARTS OR ITS CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY * DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND * ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF * THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. */

P.S. This is a repost of a legal-like question from StackOverflow where it was found off-topic. If this is off-topic here as well, please tell me where I can ask such question?

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  • In the future please try not to cross-post a question. Flag a moderator and ask them if they will consider migrating the question for you. Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 17:25
  • @maple_shaft Hi, Thanks. I did not know I can do that. Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 18:57

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Your own source files don't require that copyright notice. Your source files were written by you, not EA. What that provision is saying is that you are not to redistribute their source files without keeping their copyright/license block on them. (It's a basic attribution requirement.)

Similarly, when you distribute a binary, you have to distribute something with it that has the license block. I'd do it like "This product uses EASTL (https://github.com/paulhodge/EASTL), which is licensed under the following terms: <insert blurb here>".

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  • +1, this is a very similar license agreement as the GPL, which also requires the license be distributed with their binaries in whatever software package you distribute or use. I would just make sure not to modify the souce code headers and include the license files within or next to the EA binaries. Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 18:16
  • Not sure if that stood out in the question enough - I actually modify their code/headers since I need to adapt them to my memory management subsystem and general way I like to code. So for example I want to use their code for a vector class but modify the memory allocation part etc. Commented Apr 27, 2012 at 19:01

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