MATLAB: Does MW own copyright on C code generated by Matlab

codercopyrightsmatlab coderr2011a

The recent release of Matlab version 2011a has a new code generation product called Matlab Coder. It is a new product which generates portable C/C++ code directly from Matlab code.
Its license fee is already covered by the site-license from my university. Lets say the C code works as I think, can MathWorks claim copyright on: 1) the C code generated from Matlab code, or 2) tools that based on that piece of C code?
If finally everything written in Matlab can be transformed to C/C++ code, and it works, then the final code will be not only faster but also freely available to anyone including those who do not have Matlab installed? Am I too optimistic?
Link to some 1-2 mins 'Apple style' advertisements: http://www.mathworks.com/products/new_products/latest_features.html
Jian

Best Answer

I don't have anything to add to the legal answers above.
Technically, however, you'll find that the things that are supported for code generation using MATLAB Coder are application-oriented. With a few lines of MATLAB code you can generate a self-contained library that computes the eigenvalues of a matrix, but there's no supported "interpret and execute MATLAB code" function to compile with MATLAB Coder. To create a MATLAB-like application (even if the license permitted it) you would have to write your own interpreter in MATLAB code and then compile it.