Re: Terms of use Mathworks file exchange

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 4 May 2012 18:13, Muhali <address@hidden> wrote:
>> How did you obtain this code? This is what matters. Don't think about
>> this as source code. Legal langauge is not fed to compiler and
>> interpreters, but to ambiguous and subjective judges, juries, and
>> lawyers. What matters is not just the BSD license, but the additional
>> terms that the Mathworks added.
>
> suppose I have googled the code and clicked on whatever came first (I
> didn't). So because ML has usually the highest rank that may have been them.
> But if identical and more original code is floating around somewhere (at a
> lower Google rank) I may as well have gotten it from there. I'd be very
> *surprised* if it mattered where I downloaded the code from.

Well, this is precisely what the Mathworks are trying to achieve, that
this should matter. This is why they had lawyers write language that
tried to make this matter. If they succeed or not, who knows. But they
certainly are trying.

The usual argument is that if you click around carelessly, you've
already agreed to a site's terms of service, so you will be bound by
whatever those terms of service say. There is some evidence that
silliness like this may be enforceable in the US, and given how the
rest of the world keeps caving in to the US's laws, whether applicable
or not, it may also be enforceable elsewhere.

- Jordi G. H.