From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Fri Jan 22 02:50:44 1999 Subject: licenses and law From: Daniel Heiserer To: "John W. Eaton" , "help-octave@bevo.che.wisc.edu" Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:50:04 +0100 Hi John , > > On 22-Jan-1999, Daniel Heiserer wrote: > > | El Jeffo wrote: > | > > | > Anyone familiar with the matlab function "step()" which kinda gives a > | > graph of some lti system? or can I just steal the step.m file from matlab > | > and use it in octave? Anyone else ever borrowed .m files from matlab? Is > | > it legal? (just want a matlab like program for linux cause I don't want > | > to reboot to windows) > | > > | > | I won't steel it (Copyright) ;-). But if you have it, you probably paid > | for it > | and than it's yours and you can do with it what you want (I think). > > I think not. I would bet that the copyright and/or license severely > restricts what you can do with it. Well I am not sure if that works (legally). I am not a legal (?) expert. I think you cannot restrict the usage of something you sell. Think of ..... Assume you sell a knife and say it is only allowed to cut tomatoes. If I want a use it for playing darts I don't think that somebody can resrict me from that (as long as I don't aim on somebody). Or assume I would really buy MS-Ofiice, I don't think that they could restrict me NOT using it under linux' wine (perhaps they think, but they don't make the laws). Assume you buy a BMW, BMW cannot forbid you to drive in your garden with it. ........ ??????? I am not sure, but I think this an interestin area. Any comments from "legal experts"? -- Mit freundlichen Gruessen Daniel Heiserer ----- -------------------------------------------------------------- Dipl.-Phys. Daniel Heiserer, BMW AG, Knorrstrasse 147, 80788 Muenchen Abteilung EK-20 Tel.: 089-382-21187, Fax.: 089-382-42820 mailto:daniel dot heiserer at bmw dot de