Re: Iran, copyright, Matlab and Octave

[Michael D. Godfrey]

On 04/10/2013 09:15 AM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> Copying Matlab isn't any more wrong than copying Octave is. Just
> because we don't try to guilt trip you into thinking copying Octave
> isn't wrong, doesn't mean the action is any different than copying
> Matlab. We would like you to pay for Octave as much as TMW wants you
> to pay for Matlab, but we don't guilt trip you into doing so by
> calling you names like "pirate" if you don't pay. Because really, we
> aren't losing anything.
>
> - Jordi G. H.
Well, I would like to agree with you, but copyright law, as in the Berne
Convention, does have some meaning and legal basis.  (It is slightly
relevant that the US only joined the Berne Convention in 1988.)
The wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works
gives a bit of detail, including fair use which can be taken to mean  that
"copying is OK".

TMW does take protection of their material pretty seriously.  A friend 
noticed
that the encryption key for the Matlab license has grown longer and longer
over the years.  It takes a bit of work to break the license, and this 
would not
be treated as fair use by them.

If you "copy" Matlab you get nothing that works.  If you copy Octave you 
have
a working copy.

You might look at the JSTOR copyright statement.  You certainly know how the
Justice Department interpreted it.  You may say that "copying is OK" but, by
recent example, it kills people.  Not fair, reasonable, just or anything 
like that.
Just a fact.

Michael