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Re: Data Acquisition with Octave


From: Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
Subject: Re: Data Acquisition with Octave
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:14:06 -0500

On 8 February 2012 11:43, Julien Salort <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> There is no legal problem sharing your source code, as long as you
>> don't distribute binaries compiled to the non-free driver.
>
> Are you sure ?

Yes.

> Doesn't the  GPL state that anyone  should be allowed  to distribute the
> resulting binary, anyway one wants ?

Yes, the only requirement the GPL places is upon binary distribution.
If you were to build a binary from your code and distribute that, the
GPL requires you to also distribute the corresponding source of all
the components. Since you're unable to do that because you don't have
the source to the NI blob, you can't distribute the binary.

However, there is no legal problem with distributing only the source code.

> However: I think the NI libraries are dynamic libraries

The FSF's opinion is that the kind of linking doesn't matter. What
matters is if your resulting binary is a derivative work of both
Octave and the NI blob. The FSF's opinion is that linking does create
a derivative work, at least under US law. Similar interpretations have
been upheld in some European jurisdictions, if I recall correctly.

> Therefore, I'm  not sure  if there is  any NI  code inside the  OCT file
> itself...  If the  OCT file contains no NI code, then  it is eligible to
> the GPL, is it not ?

Just avoid distributing the oct file. It's not necessary right now.

- Jordi G. H.


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