Re: Embeding Octave and the GNU GPL license

[Jaroslav Hajek]

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Philipp Leser <address@hidden> wrote:

 

> Please also remember that if you embed Octave, your program is subject

> to the terms of the GNU GPL.  Philipp, is your program be free

> software?

> 

> jwe

 

 

| 

| Hey jwe;

| 

| actually we are not a hundred percent sure how to handle the situation. We are no GPL license experts, so your input would be highly appreciated. I want to emphasis here that we are a huge fan of the open source concept in general and most definitely don’t want to abuse it.  

| 

| What we would like to do is the following:

| 

| Create some sort of web service to provide solution of certain optimization problems to other applications ( for finding shortest paths or the like ).

| 

| Those applications that would make use of these services are non GPL (

| I believe ). Would it accord to the GPL to implement such a service (

| and license it under GPL ) and use these services from non GPL

| programs? ( In a sense I would believe that I can have a non GPL

| program making use of say the Apache Web Server to load some files

| without violating the GPL )

| 

| But of course, I may be totally wrong here.

| 

| regards

Yes, this is allowed (unless I misunderstood you). For GPL, embedding the software in a web service of any kind is just using it, and GPL grants you the freedom to use the software in whatever way for whatever purpose you like (unlike many proprietary licenses, mark you). The only thing affected is redistribution; i.e., if you ever want to sell the service software to another company, you must do so under a GPL-compatible license. Note that there is also the GNU Affero GPL which is stricter and would require you to release sources for your web service. But Octave uses GPL, not AGPL.

hth

-- 
RNDr. Jaroslav Hajek
computing expert & GNU Octave developer
Aeronautical Research and Test Institute (VZLU)
Prague, Czech Republic
url: www.highegg.matfyz.cz