Re: Octave vs. Matlab legal matters

[Michael Poole]

Jaroslav Hajek writes:

> On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 5:00 PM, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:
>> I STRONGLY recommend that everone refrain from speculating on legal
>> matters on public mailing lists.
>>
>
> Why?

People who do not practice law in place X can easily write things about
laws that have unintended meaning in place X's courts.  At least in US
courts, such discussions become obvious fodder for some lawyer to look
for and claim that the discussion "proves" willful infringement,
conspiracy or whatever other theory might be useful to the lawyer's
client.  It usually does not matter whether that is a *true* -- or even
well-founded -- claim: it tends to make work for whichever party was
part of the exchange by requiring that person to show that the theory is
wrong.

There are also places where analyzing a situation from a legal
perspective might be interpreted as practicing law (without a license to
do so).  The more specific the situation and the more
recommendation-like the output, the more places regulate this kind of
analysis.  Lawyers tend to have strong feelings about strangers
intruding on their profession :)

Michael Poole (not a lawyer)