Re: licensing question

[Michael Creel]

John W. Eaton wrote:

> On 23-Feb-2006, Michael Creel wrote:
>
> | Actually, I'm the author of the code, which is in octave-forge. Someone 
> | asked about how they might use my code with Matlab. I just wanted to 
> | give an accurate warning of what's acceptable if they decide to port the 
> | code. My code is used to create .oct files, and includes oct.h. The port 
> | would create .mex files (?) This is dynamic linking and sharing of data 
> | structures, right? So, as I understand it, this person could distribute 
> | ported source code, but not the resulting .mex files.
>
> Again, the answer probably depends on the precise details.  If your
> code relies on liboctave to do its work, so that you would have to
> link liboctave and Matlab (in a MEX file) to make your code function,
> then I would think that the liboctave license (plain GPL without
> additional exception clauses) does not allow that.
>  

When I say "port", I mean modify the program to compile using Matlab, 
but in no way using Octave, dropping oct.h, etc.  But the modified 
source would need to be GPL'd, since it would be derived from the 
existing source, which is GPL'd. It's that fact that would prevent 
distributing the binaries that result from modified source. It would be 
ok to distribute source, because there would be no use of octave. I 
haven't thought about it much, but it seems to me that it would be 
unusual, not to say perverse, to write source code that needs both 
Octave and Matlab to compile.

> If you are distributing sources that form an interface to liboctave
> that is intended to be compiled and linked as above, then I would
> claim (as the FSF has) that this use is also infinging.  As I
> understand it, expecting the user to perform the compilation and
> linking step is not a valid means for avoiding the terms of the GPL.
>
>  
I'm distributing sources that link only to octave, and have no interest 
in whether or not the fellow who asked does the port. I just want to 
tell him what he's allowed to do with my source code, given that I GPL'd it.
M.



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