Re: proposed FAQ entries about licensing

[John W. Eaton]

On 27-Mar-2009, Jaroslav Hajek wrote:

| You should also be aware that if you distribute these encrypted
| sources together with the GPLed ones, so that they form a derivative
| work, they must have a GPL-compatible license and you are thus obliged
| by the GPL to provide the source codes for the encrypted files to any
| user who asks for them, which IMHO defeats the whole purpose of the
| encryption.
| You need to distribute the encrypted files separately, and you need to
| avoid any "hard-wired" dependency on the GPLed sources (which would
| also constitute a derivative work).

I don't think separate distribution is a way to avoid the terms of the
GPLv3.  See section 5(c) where it says the license applies to all the
parts of the modified work "regardless of how they are packaged".

In any case, I have no interest in adding a p-code like capability to
Octave (compatible with Matlab's p-code or not).  One of the major
reasons for Octave's existence is to encourage free software.  I don't
see how having this feature would help us.

jwe