Re: Including Octave in NCLab

[irrational John]

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Pavel Solin <address@hidden> wrote:
>  I would like to ask whether it is OK to include Octave in NCLab

I have not read the current version of the GPL so do not confuse my speculation as a reliable answer.

But my understanding from things I've read in the past is that the primary "restrictions" are ones that most companies do not anticipate. Whereas most license agreements are about restricting the use of the licensed code, the GPL tends to be about restricting the company using the code from restricting access to and use of open source code.

In other words while you can use open source code in a proprietary application, you are not allowed to treat the open source code as proprietary.

So if you used Octave I believe you would be expected to make freely available any modifications you might make to the Octave source code. (Only source code that is part of Octave has to be opened up. The rest of your application can still be proprietary.)

You would also probably be required to mention somewhere in your documentation that you use Octave and provide a reference to the Octave GPL.

But aside from this, sure you should be able to freely use it. 

FWIW and off the top of my head, here are links to two web sites of companies that use ... and consequently release ... open source code as part of their product(s).

TiVo - GNU/Linux Source Code

Apple Open Source

Note: Of course, not all companies do this even though they are required to by the license agreement. The open source world does have a legal staff that tries to track these companies down and urge them (sue them if necessary) into compliance. (Admittedly, I don't think it is a very large staff. :-)