Using BSD license out of Matlab File Exchange

Dear All,

Is it possible to get a BSD license (i.e. using the same format of all files existing in file exchange) for my MATLAB codes "without" uploading them on File Exchange. In fact, I intend to upload my codes elsewhere. If this is not possible, would you please suggest an alternative such as, GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE 3.0+?

Furthermore, does it suffice to only incorporate a license.txt file containing the template text into my software folder? Or I should add a header to each piece of code?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

You can assign whichever license you wish to your code, regardless of where you put it. Lots of software use the BSD license, it's not the property of Mathworks.

To assign the license to your code, the only thing you'd have to do is just to state it. You can do that any way you want, via a license.txt file, a header in each source code file.

Note that the BSD license and the GNU GPL license are fundamentally different. With BSD anyway distributing your code with theirs only has to include your copyright notice, with GPL they also have to include your and their source code. There are plenty of other open source licenses to choose from as well.

If you do really care about the license, you need to seek the advice of a lawyer.

[Ive J]

Dear Guillaume,

Thanks for your helpful response.

Best regards,

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

You just include a license text file of the terms you want. In a larger project you may wish to include the license text in the main function and you might want to say "see license file" in the other ones.

Legally, there are only two statuses in most countries: a "sufficiently original" work is either copyrighted or it is Public Domain.

Public Domain requires a clear statement that the work is released to the public domain (except for certain works such as some produced by some goverments of some countries.) The release to the public domain must not have any phrase such as "copyright": if it says it is "Copyright John Q. Public, released to the Public Domain" then it retains its copyright and is not Public Domain. Public Domain can give credit for the work, can say who the author is, but must unambiguously say "Public Domain". Public Domain works are not copyrighted and may be used by anyone for any reason. If there are any conditions expressed like "Released to the Public Domain, may be used for free for non-commercial purposes" then it is not released to the Public Domain. Public Domain must relinquish all rights, give no conditions at all.

In most other countries, anything that is not explicitly public domain and is "sufficiently original" is automatically copyrighted, even if the work does not say so and even if no registration steps were taken. Registering a copyright may allow increase in damages for violation of copyright, but unregistered works are copyright from the moment they are created.

Other than copyright registration notices, everything else in a copyrighted workk is license terms, the terms under which people may use the copyrighted material. If you want to permit your work to be used for free by people with tattoos of Yogi Bear and no-one else, then you can do that. Just don't expect people to notice and obey, not in practice.

Using a BSD license or one of the GPL is then just a matter of templating: the licenses have been looked over and designed to fit certain purposes, and if they fit your purpose then you can just include them. If you use one of the common licenses like BSD then people may have read the same license before and so will not need to read what you wrote / copied. Saves mental energy.

[Ive J]

Dear Walter,

Thanks for your insightful answer. It seems to me that BSD would be of more practical use, due to its easy-to-read prose.

Regards,