--- Raymond Toy <toy@rtp.ericsson.se> wrote:
> >>>>> "Martin" == a9104910 <a9104910@unet.univie.ac.at> writes:
>
> Martin> By the way, it seems that Fabrizio Caruso from RISC Linz
> is currently
> Martin> working on an adaption of their Zeilberger Package for
> Maxima. It's not
> Martin> GPL though. Unfortunately.
>
> If he distributes his code to other, does the GPL allow him to hook
> up his code to Maxima and not have his code under GPL?
>
> I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that's possible. If he doesn't
> distribute his code, then it's fine. Presumably, he'd want other
> people to be able to use his code.
Ummm - I think it depends on how you view code running in Maxima. I'm
not a lawyer either, but here are my thoughts:
My take would be that people can't do non-GPL work on the Maxima
distribution and redistribute it, but if they want to use Maxima to run
their own (non-GPL) packages and distribute those packages separately
that's just fine. If they want their packages to become part of the
Maxima distribution, that's another story, but if they distribute
routines independent of Maxima I don't really see a problem - kind of
like TheKompany, who distributes commercial addons to their core free
products, or non-GPL plugins to the GIMP. If he wants to bundle Maxima
with his stuff, THAT might be a problem. But if he distributes his
stuff, doesn't use code which is actually part of the Maxima
distribution and lets the users load and run it, I don't see how there
can be a problem. GPL, IIRC, doesn't place ANY restrictions on use.
So unless we take the position that any routines which can be run on
Maxima are automatically derivative from Maxima code or become part of
the code when run on it, it should be fine. I suppose an arguement
might be made for the latter, but I'd be surprised. I don't think
that's a stance we really want to take - we want to encourage use of
Maxima, not discourage it.
CY
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