Re: Using octave runtime in a commercial product

[Judd Storrs]

I think the key question is going to be:

Does the library A _only_ use the MEX interface?

Yes: Not a derivative.
No: Definitely a derivative according to the octave developers.

If you use any other octave headers (i.e. any binary interface or data
structure that does not also exist within Matlab), the developers of
octave consider the result to be a derived work of octave.

Additionally, there is the issue of how you are going to prevent the
customers from reading the contents of *.m files. I don't think octave
currently has any method to protect the contents of *.m files and
octave also does not currently have an equivalent to the matlab
compiler.

--judd


On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:06 PM, Eduardo Fuentetaja
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Thank you for the quick answer. That link was helpful.
>
> Yes, we'd like to protect the m-files. The idea would be to have an
> application A that calls a library L. This library would have embedded the
> Octave interpreter, that we will use to run our m-files. We wouldn't have a
> problem releasing the source code for the library L, but we wouldn't like to
> release the source code of A or the m-files as GPL.
>
> Would A be considered a derivative work from Octave? That's the question.
>
> Regards,
>
>        Ed
>
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: David Bateman [mailto:address@hidden
> Enviado el: jueves, 12 de noviembre de 2009 20:27
> Para: Eduardo Fuentetaja
> CC: address@hidden
> Asunto: Re: Using octave runtime in a commercial product
>
> Eduardo Fuentetaja wrote:
>> Dear Octave team,
>>
>>
>>
>> I haven't been able to find an answer to my question on the Octave wiki or
>> forums. Let me give you some context: at my company (Agnitio, we are in
> the
>> voice biometric business) we use Matlab extensively for our prototyping.
>> Recently we have been experimenting with the possibility of packaging
> Matlab
>> code and call it directly in our commercial products. This is accomplished
>> by means of the "Matlab compiler" that is able to pack .m functions into
>> native libraries, which are executed by a Matlab runtime (the MCR, that
> can
>> be distributed freely to our customers). This experiment hasn't been very
>> successful due to compatibility problems with some third party libraries
>> that the Matlab runtime uses. Being a closed-source product, we don't have
>> many options there.
>>
>>
>>
>> Octave looks like a good alternative to Matlab: able to compile it from
> the
>> sources we'd have a greater deal of control over third-party dependencies.
>> Well, it seems very promising to me. The issue with Octave is that it's
>> distributed under GPL license and being such a complex and wordy license
> I'm
>> not sure if this license allows us doing what I have in mind: write some
>> code in Octave, compile Octave as a library that will execute the Octave
>> code under demand, distribute this library in binary format as part of our
>> software products and sell commercially these products. Well, is this
>> possible with Octave or is it not? I'd like to have your confirmation
>> without continuing any further.
>>
>>
>>
>> If anyone is interested we can contribute with any modifications we made
> to
>> Octave code.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you so much for your answer.
>>
>>
> The FAQ on the website is not up to date, but this
>
> http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/f80c566bc751/doc/faq/OctaveFAQ.
> texi
>
> version contains some discussion of the issues. You probably can't do it
> the way you described. What are you trying to do anyway? Hide the code
> of your m-files? Or deliver your code under your chosen license? You can
> use mex and m-files under whatever license your want and deliver them
> with Octave and long as you supply the means for your clients to obtain
> the source of Octave in the form that you used to for the binary that
> you delivered
>
> D.
>
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