Jonathan Stickel wrote:
> Firstly, I would like to ask about the spline-gcvspl package, which 
> provides a nice way to smooth data.  What is the origin of the non-free 
> license?  I looked at the source link for the fortran dependency and 
> performed a google search, but I cannot find the posted license 
> anywhere.  Does the non-free license (dated 1986) still apply?  Other 
> references on the web, including a Matlab mex interface, seem to imply 
> that this code is public domain, or at least provide no 
> copyright/license information at all.
>   

The license file that comes with the code is

<quote>
MEMO:                     GCVSPL software package
 
(C) COPYRIGHT 1985, 1986: H.J. Woltring
                          Philips Medical Systems Division, Eindhoven
                          University of Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
 
DATE:                     1986-05-12
 
NB: This software is copyrighted, and may be copied for excercise,
study and use without authorization from the copyright owner(s), in
compliance with paragraph 16b of the Dutch Copyright Act of 1912
("Auteurswet 1912"). Within the constraints of this legislation, all
forms of academic and research-oriented excercise, study, and use are
allowed, including any necessary modifications. Copying and use as
object for commercial exploitation are not allowed without permission
of the copyright owners, including those upon whose work the package
is based.

[see also:
http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/archives/biomch-l-1994-06/00093.html
http://www.utc.edu/Human-Movement/3-d/herman.htm
Kai Habel]
</quote>

How long does dutch copyright last? If more than 22 years then this code
is still covered by Dutch copyright law. In any case both of the above
links are dead, but checking the wayback machine I can find

http://web.archive.org/web/20040905104948/http://isb.ri.ccf.org/biomch-l/archives/biomch-l-1994-06/00093.html

Which explains clearly that the license of this code as stated in
octave-forge is correct.. If you want to try and get the author to
change the license then as seen in

http://web.archive.org/web/20030105054443/http://www.utc.edu/Human-Movement/3-d/herman.htm

you'll need a "medium" to do it. We have to consider this copyright as
valid.

> Secondly, I have written a set of functions that implements data 
> smoothing by Tikhonov regularization.  For most cases it performs at 
> least as well as the gcvspl method, especially when looking at 
> derivatives of the data.  The code will be under the GPL and is written 
> completely in m-files.  My question is:  should I put the functions in 
> an existing octave-forge package or create a new one?  They shouldn't go 
> in splines since a spline method isn't used.  How about a 
> "data-smoothing" package or perhaps a "regularization" package?
>   
Create a new package in main/ would be what I'd suggest.

D.


-- 
David Bateman                                [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Motorola Labs - Paris                        +33 1 69 35 48 04 (Ph) 
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