Re: Matlab compiled mex files in octave

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On 20 February 2013 05:33, Henry Gomersall <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Wed, 2013-02-20 at 11:27 +0100, c. wrote:
>> I am afraid doing that might violate both Octave and matlab
>> licencing terms. IANAL, though, so I suggest you ask for legal
>> advice from someone more competent than me before you distribute
>> your tutorial to the public.
>
> Why would it violate Matlab license terms? I'm not using anything
> from Mathworks and I don't have a license.

Because the mex files are derivative work derived from Matlab. It
violates Matlab's copyright, but I doubt they will enforce it. They
rarely do in cases such as this.

> It _may_ violate the license of the library.

What license does the library have?

> It also probably breaks the GPL, but this is a big ole grey
> area as regards non-distribution (a la NVidia binary blobs).

The nvidia binary blob isn't a grey area. It's a clear GPL violation.
The Linux hackers just choose to not enforce their copyright here
either.

This is also violates Octave's copyright. Please take down this blog
post. Instead, pressure the authors of the library to release source,
since you cannot use this library in Octave without it.

> The info certainly doesn't break any licenses so use it as you will
> and with whatever caveats you feel the need to insert.

Under some jurisdictions, people have been successfully prosecuted for
inciting others to copyright infringement, even if they haven't done
any infringement themselves. This was, for example, the legal basis
for the legal attack on the originators of the Pirate Bay.

    
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay_trial#Trial_and_courtroom_charges

Please take down your blog post. This doesn't further the cause of
free software. We need a free library with source, not binary hacks.

- Jordi G. H.