Hi, I have a question about Sage and the GPL. Here is the main question..
IF I write code in a Sage notebook, AND I redistribute the code, do I need to release my code under the GPL? Here is a bit of background... At a conference in the last year, one of the Sage developers was asked this question, and their answer was... "You can do whatever you want with your code, you don't have to release it under the GPL" In general, I don't think this answer can be right, but I think it is actually a bit subtle. Here are some of the issues that I see (all of this assumes that I do want to distribute my code to others)... * Is the code pure python or does it use the sage syntax? If the code uses the sage syntax, I think it must be released under the GPL. * Does the code being written actually use any GPL libraries (like the sage python package)? If the code uses GPL libraries, I again think it must be GPL'd. * Does the code run without sage? * Does a sage notebook constitute "source code" in the GPL sense? * Is a notebook (even one that uses the "python" mode) a derivative work of sage? * If a sage notebook is "source code" does clicking "Share" in the notebook constitute "distribution". In other words, if a bunch of people start sharing sage notebooks, do they all have to be GPL? The usage case I have in mind is using this to teach University courses in computational physics. I know others are already doing this (William is right now I think). If I share notebooks with students and they with me, does everything have to be GPL? If we only use non-GPL libraries and the "python" mode of the notebook could we choose a different license? This is relevant, because I need to clarify these issues for students and faculty who would use Sage in this manner. It isn't necessarily bad if the answer is "GPL", but we all need to know this. Cheers, Brian --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
