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one-line function descriptions fair use?



Hi, all.

I've created a list of compatible and missing functions comparing an
open source project (Octave) and its commercial equivalent (Matlab).
The function categories, names and one line descriptions come directly
from the documentation for the commercial product with the following
copyright:

     Signal Processing Toolbox User's Guide

     COPYRIGHT 1988 - 1999 by The MathWorks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

     The software described in this document is furnished under a
     license agreement. The software may be used or copied only under
     the terms of the license agreement. No part of this manual may
     be photocopied or reproduced in any form without prior written
     consent from The MathWorks, Inc.

My question is, can I include the function descriptions from the summary
section of the manual (10 pages out of 720) along with my package
of replacements for some of the missing functions?  If so, how do I
correctly acknowledge the source?  Or do I have to make up my own one
line summaries?  I presume I can use the function names themselves or
the whole idea of cloning a library is impossible.

The functions were developed without reference to the matlab source
(though I did read the Matlab manuals pretty thoroughly) and documented
in my own words according to what they do (which is not always what the
equivalent matlab functions do), so I'm not worried about those.

Please respond directly as I am not a subscriber to this list.  A pointer
to the relevant FAQ is presumably in order.

Thanks,

Paul Kienzle
pkienzle@kienzle.powernet.co.uk



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