Re2: free Matlab access?

[David Bateman]

Jaroslav Hajek wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
> <jordigh at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>>> 3. NONCOMPETITION.  Licensee agrees not to use the Programs, Derivative
>>>   Forms, Generated Forms, or Program Components to make or distribute
>>>   its own or a Third Party's Application, a principal purpose of which,
>>>   as reasonably determined by MathWorks, is to perform the same or
>>>   similar functions as Programs licensed by MathWorks or which replaces
>>>   any component of the Programs.  Licensee shall not otherwise use the
>>>   Programs to compete with the products or businesses of MathWorks,
>>>   including by distributing Libraries, or any form of an entire Program
>>>   or a substantial portion of a Program.
>>>       
>> Gah, this one looks really nasty. They're trying to make it illegal to
>> create Octave if you use Matlab!
>>
>>     
>
> Hey, IANAL either, but my first defense would be stating that I'm by
> no means using Matlab to make or distribute Octave! I'm developing
> using ViM and distributing using Savannah.
> In principle, I think anyone who developed a script improving on one
> of Matlab's functions (and  there are hundreds of those) using the
> Matlab's built-in editor did violate this clause, and more apparently
> than (possibly) me.
>
>   
Lots of things are written in these type of contracts with the hope that 
they might be applied in some jurisprudence..  I'd say most courts would 
look unfavourably on a company trying to create a monopoly with a legal 
trick like this to the detriment of their own costumers (ie removing all 
chance of them going somewhere else)... I'm sure looking around it would 
be easy to find case law that demonstrated that.. In any case I've never 
signed any contract or even clicked a button saying I agreed to a 
mathworks EULA, though I imagine the company I worked for did. I'd say 
ignore this clause completely.

The clause about giving access to a third party I wouldn't ignore 
however, as mathworks has a reasonable argument there. Its a situation 
like a video rental store versus a video cassette bought in the local 
supermarket. You can be sure the rental shop paid much more for their 
copy to be allowed to rent it to others. Seems reasonable to apply the 
same logic to software..

D.


D.

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David Bateman                                dbateman at dbateman.org
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