Licensing practice

[Javier Fernandez Baldomero]

Hi,

If I make a collection of .oct files to be used together with octave...

1.- What's the name for that? Package? Toolbox?

2.- What is compulsory to do?

    I think I must include "This is a part of Octave". It is enough
that I include it in the main include file which is in turn included
by all the other .oct files? (they could be easily more than 150
files...) or should I include that text in every file?

    I think I found the "standard" text somewhere, and for some of
the 150 files, the suggested text is bigger than the file itself, IIRC.

3.- I think I have read that the toolbox/package must be gnu-licensed.
    So I should include a file with the gnu rules. Is that right?

    Would it be valid if I simply copy the text file
        http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
and/or the web page
        http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
found linked in
        http://www.octave.org/license.html
in the top directory of the package, or should I do something else?


4.- If the toolbox/package is to be used together with some other
    software with more relaxed rules... are there any legal problems
    with that?

    I think there shouldn't be. For fixing concepts, let's imagine
the other involved software was LAM/MPI whose rules may be found in
http://www.lam-mpi.org/
http://www.lam-mpi.org/community/license.php

(it's just an example, any similar rule would serve to pose this
 question)

    Does anybody see any (licensing) problems in an (hypothetical)
octave package/toolbox using (say) LAM/MPI _and_ Octave, to be
(compulsorily) licensed under the GNU licensing scheme?

I hope the question is clear, because is it's not, I will not be
able to clarify it :-) (I always get lost when it comes to legal
concepts :-)

4.- Any other conditions?


Thanks in advance for your comments/warnings/advices/whatever
And thanks for taking the time to read this e-mail and the
(lengthy) rules, of course

-javier



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