How do I construct … in GAP?

Posted on 2017/08/09 by wdjoyner

This page is devoted to answering some basic questions along the line “How do I construct … in GAP?” You may view the html source code for the GAP commands without the output or GAP prompt.

Please send suggestions, additions, corrections to David Joyner.

This page itself is under construction…

Questions

How do I construct a … group? permutation dihedral cyclic conjugacy classes of a finitely presented	How do I … a polynomial? factor find roots of evaluate Groebner basis of ideal of
Brauer characters	How do I find the … of a group representation? character table
How do I compute an mod m, where A is …? an integer a square matrix a polynomial	Given a group G, how do I compute … ? all normal subgroups of G all abelian subgroups of G a homomorphism from G to another group H the semi-direct product of G with another group H all groups of order 12 written as semi-direct products the cohomology of G with coefficients in A

Answers

- permutation:
  To construct a permutation group, write down generators in disjoint cycle notation, put them in a list (i.e., surround them by square brackets), and the permutation group G generated by the cycles (1,2)(3,4) and (1,2,3):

gap> G:=Group((1,2)(3,4),(1,2,3));

Group([ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ])

This is of course a subgroup of the symmetric group S₄ on 4 letters. Indeed, this G is in fact the alternating group on four letters, A₄.

By virtue of the fact that the permutations generating G employ integers less than or equal to 4, this group G is a subgroup of the symmetric group S₄ on 4 letters. Some permutation groups have special constructions:

gap> S4:=SymmetricGroup(4);
Sym( [ 1 .. 4 ] )
gap> A4:=AlternatingGroup(4);
Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] )
gap> IsSubgroup(S4,G);
true
gap> IsSubgroup(A4,G);
true
gap> S3:=SymmetricGroup(3);
Sym( [ 1 .. 3 ] )
gap> IsSubgroup(S3,G);
false

- dihedral
  To construct a dihedral group, use the special “DihedralGroup” command:

gap> G:=DihedralGroup(6);
gap> Size(G);
6
gap> f:=GeneratorsOfGroup( G );
[ f1, f2 ]
gap> f[1]^2; f[2]^3;
identity of ...
identity of ...
gap> f[1]^2= f[2]^3;
true

cyclic group
To construct a cyclic group, you may construct integers mod n:

gap> R:=ZmodnZ( 12);
(Integers mod 12)
gap> a:=Random(R);
ZmodnZObj( 11, 12 )
gap> 4*a;
ZmodnZObj( 8, 12 )
gap> b:=Random(R);
ZmodnZObj( 9, 12 )
gap> a+b;
ZmodnZObj( 8, 12 )

or use the special “CyclicGroup” command

gap> G:=CyclicGroup(12);
pc group of size 12 with 3 generators
gap> a:=Random(G);
f3^2
gap> f:=GeneratorsOfGroup( G );
[ f1, f2, f3 ]
gap> f[1]^4;
f3
gap> f[1]^12;
identity of ...

conjugacy:
The conjugacy classes of a group G are computed using the “ConjugacyClasses” command. This is a list of classes {x^-1*g*x | x in G}.

gap> G:=SL(2,7);
SL(2,7)
gap> CG:=ConjugacyClasses(G);
[ [ [ Z(7)^0, 0*Z(7) ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^0 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^5 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^4 ], [ Z(7)^5, Z(7)^5 ] ]^G,
  [ [ Z(7)^3, 0*Z(7) ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^2 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^4 ], [ Z(7)^5, Z(7)^2 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, 0*Z(7) ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^4 ] ]^G,
  [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, Z(7) ] ]^G,
  [ [ Z(7)^4, 0*Z(7) ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^2 ] ]^G,
  [ [ Z(7)^5, 0*Z(7) ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7) ] ]^G ]
gap> g:=Representative(CG[3]); Order(g);
[ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^4 ], [ Z(7)^5, Z(7)^5 ] ]
14
gap> g:=Representative(CG[4]); Order(g);
[ [ Z(7)^3, 0*Z(7) ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ] ]
2
gap> g:=Representative(CG[5]); Order(g);
[ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3 ], [ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^2 ] ]
7
gap> g:=Representative(CG[6]); Order(g);
[ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^4 ], [ Z(7)^5, Z(7)^2 ] ]
7
gap>

presented
To construct a finitely presented group in GAP, use the “FreeGroup” and “FpGroupPresentation” commands. Here is one example.

gap> M12 := MathieuGroup( 12 );
Group([ (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11), (3,7,11,8)(4,10,5,6), (1,12)(2,11)(3,6)(4,8)(5,9)(7,10) ])
gap> F := FreeGroup( "a", "b", "c" );
free group on the generators [ a, b, c ]
gap> words := [ F.1, F.2 ];
[ a, b ]
gap> P := PresentationViaCosetTable( M12, F, words );
presentation with 3 gens and 10 rels of total length 97
gap> TzPrintRelators( P );
#I  1. c^2
#I  2. b^4
#I  3. a*c*a*c*a*c
#I  4. a*b^2*a*b^-2*a*b^-2
#I  5. a^11
#I  6. a^2*b*a^-2*b^2*a*b^-1*a^2*b^-1
#I  7. a*b*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1*a*b*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1
#I  8. a^2*b*a^2*b^2*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1*a^-1*b^-1
#I  9. a*b*a*b*a^2*b^-1*a^-1*b^-1*a*c*b*c
#I  10. a^4*b*a^2*b*a^-2*c*a*b*a^-1*c
gap> G := FpGroupPresentation( P );
fp group on the generators [ a, b, c ]
gap> RelatorsOfFpGroup( G );  
[ c^2, b^4, a*c*a*c*a*c, a*b^-2*a*b^-2*a*b^-2, a^11, a^2*b*a^-2*b^-2*a*b^-1*a^2*b^-1, a*b*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1*a*b*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1,
  a^2*b*a^2*b^-2*a^-1*b*a^-1*b^-1*a^-1*b^-1, a*b*a*b*a^2*b^-1*a^-1*b^-1*a*c*b*c, a^4*b*a^2*b*a^-2*c*a*b*a^-1*c ]
gap> Size(M12);
95040
gap> Size(G);
95040
gap> IsomorphismGroups(G,M12); 
????????

The last command is computationally intensive and requires more than the default memory allocation of 256M of RAM.

Here is another example.

gap> F := FreeGroup( "a", "b");
free group on the generators [ a, b ]
gap> G:=F/[F.1^2,F.2^3,F.1*F.2*F.1^(-1)*F.2^(-1)];
fp group on the generators [ a, b ]
gap> Size(G);
6

rref
The key command for row reduction is “TriangulizeMat”. The following example illustrates the syntax.

gap> M:=[[1,2,3,4,5],[1,2,1,2,1],[1,1,0,0,0]];
[ [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ], [ 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 ], [ 1, 1, 0, 0, 0 ] ]
gap> TriangulizeMat(M);
gap> M;
[ [ 1, 0, 0, -1, 1 ], [ 0, 1, 0, 1, -1 ], [ 0, 0, 1, 1, 2 ] ]
gap> Display(M);
[ [   1,   0,   0,  -1,   1 ],
  [   0,   1,   0,   1,  -1 ],
  [   0,   0,   1,   1,   2 ] ]
gap> M:=Z(3)^0*[[1,2,3,4,5],[1,2,1,2,1],[1,1,0,0,0]];
[ [ Z(3)^0, Z(3), 0*Z(3), Z(3)^0, Z(3) ],
  [ Z(3)^0, Z(3), Z(3)^0, Z(3), Z(3)^0 ],
  [ Z(3)^0, Z(3)^0, 0*Z(3), 0*Z(3), 0*Z(3) ] ]
gap> TriangulizeMat(M);
gap> Display(M);
 1 . . 2 1
 . 1 . 1 2
 . . 1 1 2
gap>

kernel:
There are different methods for matrices over the integers and matrices over a field. For integer entries, related commands include “NullspaceIntMat” and “SolutionNullspaceIntMat” in section 25.1 “Linear equations over the integers and Integral Matrices” of the reference manual.

gap> M:=[[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]];
[ [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 4, 5, 6 ], [ 7, 8, 9 ] ]
gap> NullspaceIntMat(M);
[ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ]
gap> SolutionNullspaceIntMat(M,[0,0,1]);
[ fail, [ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ] ]
gap> SolutionNullspaceIntMat(M,[0,0,0]);
[ [ 0, 0, 0 ], [ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ] ]
gap> SolutionNullspaceIntMat(M,[1,2,3]);
[ [ 1, 0, 0 ], [ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ] ]

Here (0,0,1) is not in the image of M
(under v-> v*M) but (0,0,0) and (1,2,3) are.

For field entries, related commands include “NullspaceMat” and “TriangulizedNullspaceMat” in section 24.6 “Matrices Representing Linear Equations and the Gaussian Algorithm”
of the reference manual.

gap> M:=[[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]];
[ [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 4, 5, 6 ], [ 7, 8, 9 ] ]
gap> NullspaceMat(M);
[ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ]
gap> TriangulizedNullspaceMat(M);
[ [ 1, -2, 1 ] ]
gap> M:=[[1,2,3,1,1],[4,5,6,1,1],[7,8,9,1,1],[1,2,3,1,1]];
[ [ 1, 2, 3, 1, 1 ], [ 4, 5, 6, 1, 1 ], [ 7, 8, 9, 1, 1 ], 
  [ 1, 2, 3, 1, 1 ] ]
gap> NullspaceMat(M);
[ [ 1, -2, 1, 0 ], [ -1, 0, 0, 1 ] ]
gap> TriangulizedNullspaceMat(M);
[ [ 1, 0, 0, -1 ], [ 0, 1, -1/2, -1/2 ] ]

characteristic polynomial:
Please see section 24.12.1 of the GAP reference manual for examples of characteristic polynomial of a square matrix (“CharacteristicPolynomial”) and section 56.3 for examples of the “characteristic polynomial” (called a “TracePolynomial”) of an element of a field extension.

character:
GAP contains very extensive character theoretic functions and data libraries (including an interface the character table in the Atlas). Here is just one simple example.

gap> G:=Group((1,2)(3,4),(1,2,3));
Group([ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ])
gap> T:=CharacterTable(G);
CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) )
gap> Display(T);
CT1

     2  2  2  .  .
     3  1  .  1  1

       1a 2a 3a 3b
    2P 1a 1a 3b 3a
    3P 1a 2a 1a 1a

X.1     1  1  1  1
X.2     1  1  A /A
X.3     1  1 /A  A
X.4     3 -1  .  .

A = E(3)^2
  = (-1-ER(-3))/2 = -1-b3
gap> irr:=Irr(G);
[ Character( CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) ), [ 1, 1, 1, 1 ] ),
  Character( CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) ), [ 1, 1, E(3)^2, E(3) ] ),
  Character( CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) ), [ 1, 1, E(3), E(3)^2 ] ),
  Character( CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) ), [ 3, -1, 0, 0 ] ) ]
gap> Display(irr);
[ [       1,       1,       1,       1 ],
  [       1,       1,  E(3)^2,    E(3) ],
  [       1,       1,    E(3),  E(3)^2 ],
  [       3,      -1,       0,       0 ] ]
gap> chi:=irr[2]; gamma:=CG[3]; g:=Representative(gamma); g^chi;
Character( CharacterTable( Alt( [ 1 .. 4 ] ) ), [ 1, 1, E(3)^2, E(3) ] )
(1,2,3)^G
(1,2,3)
E(3)^2

For further details and examples, see chapters 69– 72 of the GAP reference manual.

brauer:
Just a simple example of what GAP can do here. To construct a Brauer character table:

gap> G:=Group((1,2)(3,4),(1,2,3));
Group([ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ])
gap> irr:=IrreducibleRepresentations(G,GF(7));
[ [ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ] -> [ [ [ Z(7)^0 ] ], [ [ Z(7)^0 ] ] ],
  
[ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ] -> [ [ [ Z(7)^0 ] ], [ [ Z(7)^4 ] ] ],
  
[ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ] -> [ [ [ Z(7)^0 ] ], [ [ Z(7)^2 ] ] ],
  
[ (1,2)(3,4), (1,2,3) ] -> [
      
[ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3, Z(7)^0 ], [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^3, 0*Z(7) ], 
[ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^3, 0*Z(7) ] ],
      [ [ 0*Z(7), Z(7)^0, 0*Z(7) ], 
[ 0*Z(7), 0*Z(7), Z(7)^0 ], [ Z(7)^0, 0*Z(7), 0*Z(7) ] ]
     
] ]
gap> brvals := List(irr,chi-> List(ConjugacyClasses(G),c->
BrauerCharacterValue(Image(chi, Representative(c)))));
[ [ 1, 1, 1, 1 ], [ 1, 1, E(3)^2, E(3) ], [ 1, 1, E(3), E(3)^2 ], 
[ 3, -1, 0, 0 ] ]
gap> Display(brvals);
[ [       1,       1,       1,       1 ],
  
[       1,       1,  E(3)^2,    E(3) ],
  
[       1,       1,    E(3),  E(3)^2 ],
  
[       3,      -1,       0,       0 ] ]
gap>

List(ConjugacyClasses(G),c->BrauerCharacterValue(Image(chi, Representative(c)))));
#Display(brvals);
T:=CharacterTable(G);
Display(T);
–>

polynomial
There are various ways to construct a polynomial in GAP.

gap> Pts:=Z(7)^0*[1,2,3];
[ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^2, Z(7) ]
gap> Vals:=Z(7)^0*[1,2,6];
[ Z(7)^0, Z(7)^2, Z(7)^3 ]
gap> g:=InterpolatedPolynomial(GF(7),Pts,Vals);
Z(7)^5*x_1^2+Z(7)

Or:

gap> p:=3;; F:=GF(p);;
gap> R:=PolynomialRing(F,["x1","x2"]);
PolynomialRing(..., [ x1, x2 ])
gap> vars:=IndeterminatesOfPolynomialRing(R);;
gap> x1:=vars[1]; x2:=vars[2];
x1
x2
gap> p:=x1^5-x2^5;
x1^5-x2^5
gap> DivisorsMultivariatePolynomial(p,R);
[ x1^4+x1^3*x2+x1^2*x2^2+x1*x2^3+x2^4, x1-x2 ]

Or:

gap> x:=X(Rationals);
x_1
gap> f:=x+x^2+1;
x_1^2+x_1+1
gap> Value(f,[x],[1]);
3

factor
To factor a polynomial in GAP, there is one command for univariate polynomials (“Factors”) and another command for multivariate polynomials (“DivisorsMultivariatePolynomial”). For a factoring a univariate polynomial, GAP provides only methods over finite fields and over subfields of cyclotomic fields. Please see the examples given in section 64.10 “Polynomial Factorization” for more details. For multivariate polynomials, a very slow algorithm has been implemented in GAP and an interface to a very fast algorithm in Singular has been implemented for those who have both Singular and the GAP Singular package installed. The former of these was illustrated above in “polynomial” above. (Again, the ground field must be a finite field or a subfields of cyclotomic fields.) For the latter, please see the example in the (GAP-)Singular manual FactorsUsingSingularNC.
roots
There are some situations where GAP can find the roots of a polynomial but GAP does not do this generally. (The roots must generate either a finite field or a subfield of a cyclotomic field.) However, there is a package called RadiRoot which must be installed which does help to do this for polynomials with rational coefficients (radiroot itself requires other packages to be installed; please see the webpage for more details). The “Factors” command actually has an option which allows you to increase the groundfield so that a factorization actually returns the roots. Please see the examples given in section 64.10 “Polynomial Factorization” for more details. Here is a second approach.
```
gap> p:=3; n:=4; F:=GF(p^n); c:=Random(F); r:=2;
3
4
GF(3^4)
Z(3^4)^79
2
gap>  x:=X(F,1); f:=x^r-c*x+c-1;
x_1
x_1^2+Z(3^4)^39*x_1+Z(3^4)^36
gap>  F_f:=FieldExtension( F, f );
AsField( GF(3^4), GF(3^8) )
gap>  alpha:=RootOfDefiningPolynomial(F_f);
Z(3^4)^36
gap> Value(f,[x],[alpha]);
0*Z(3)
```
Here is a third. First, enter the following program
```
RootOfPolynomial:=function(f,R)
 local F0,Ff,a;
 F0:=CoefficientsRing(R);
 Ff:=FieldExtension(F0,f);
 a:=RootOfDefiningPolynomial(Ff);
 return a;
end;
```
Here’s how this can be used to find a root:
```
gap> F:=Rationals;
Rationals
gap> x:=X(F,1); f:=x^2+x+1;
x_1
x_1^2+x_1+1
gap> R:=PolynomialRing( F, [ x ]);
PolynomialRing(..., [ x_1 ])
gap> a:=RootOfPolynomial(f,R);
E(3)
gap> # check:
gap> Value(f,[x],[a]);
0
```
Related links:
1. In the GAP Forum: Hensel lifting discussion.
2. In the manual, Galois groups.
evaluate:
The relevant command is “Value”. There are several examples already on this page. For others, please see the examples given in section 64.7 Multivariate polynomials of the manual. For sparse uivariate polynomials, there is also the command “ValuePol” in section 23.6 of the manual.

integer power
This is easy and intuitive:

gap> a:=1000; n:=100000; m:=123;
1000
100000
123
gap> a^n mod m;
1

matrix power:
This too is easy and intuitive:

gap> A:=[[1,2],[3,4]]; n:=100000; m:=123;
[ [ 1, 2 ], [ 3, 4 ] ]
100000
123
gap> A^n mod m;
[ [ 1, 41 ], [ 0, 1 ] ]

polynomial power
GAP allows you to do arithmetic over the polynomial ring R[x], where R = Z/nZ (where n is a positive integer). Here’s an example.

gap> Z4:=ZmodnZ(4);
(Integers mod 4)
gap> R:=UnivariatePolynomialRing(Z4,1);
PolynomialRing(..., [ x ])
gap> x:=IndeterminatesOfPolynomialRing(R)[1];
x
gap> I:=TwoSidedIdealByGenerators( R,[x^8-x^0]);
two-sided ideal in PolynomialRing(..., [ x ]), (1 generators)
gap> gen:=x^8-x^0;
x8-ZmodnZObj(1,4)
gap> QuotientRemainder(R,x^8,gen);
[ ZmodnZObj(1,4), ZmodnZObj(1,4) ]
gap> QuotientRemainder(R,x^15,gen);
[ x^7, x^7 ]
gap> QuotientRemainder(R,x^15+x^8,gen);
[ x^7+ZmodnZObj(1,4), x^7+ZmodnZObj(1,4) ]
gap> PowerMod( R, x+x^0, 15, gen );
ZmodnZObj(0,4)
gap> PowerMod( R, x, 15, gen );
x^7

Groebner basis
GAP’s Groebner bases algorithms are relatively slow and are included mostly for simple examples and for teaching purposes. However, a GAP interface to a very fast algorithm in Singular has been implemented for those who have both Singular and the GAP Singular package installed. The former of these is illustrated in section 64.17 Groebner bases of the GAP manual. For the latter, please see the example in the (GAP-)Singular manual GroebnerBasis.

normal subgroup:
Here is an example:

gap> G := AlternatingGroup( 5 );
Group( (1,2,5), (2,3,5), (3,4,5) )
gap> normal := NormalSubgroups( G );
[ Subgroup( Group( (1,2,5), (2,3,5), (3,4,5) ), [  ] ), 
  Subgroup( Group( (1,2,5), (2,3,5), (3,4,5) ), 
    [ (1,2)(3,4), (1,3)(4,5), (1,4)(2,3) ] ) ]

Copyright law as it pertains to mathematics and mathematical software

Posted on 2008/05/05 by wdjoyner

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not to be construed as legal advice. However, I find copyright law very interesting but complicated and wrote this only to try to explain some of the simpler aspects of copyright law which pertain to mathematical scholars.

This is a brief survey on some aspects of federal copyright law, as it pertains to mathematicians. (By mathematician, which we mean teachers or scholarly researchers at a non-profit educational institute; generally, the more commercial the enterprise, the more complicated the law is governing it. This small survey only discusses the simplest aspects.) It does not cover other aspects of intellectual property law, such as laws governing patents, trade secrets, and so on (see for example, [K]). We have used the excellent book [L] by Leaffer as a basis for this survey. Copyright law is very complex [US] but, I hope, this post shows that many parts of copyright law which pertain to mathematicians, is relatively uncomplicated.

U.S. copyright law applies to writings, or works ‘fixed in a tangible medium of expression’, produced by an author. For this article, we assume the author is a U. S. citizen and the work was produced on U. S. soil. However, a ‘writing’ is not assumed to be human-readable, so, for example, a software program in executable binary form, or ‘object code’, is included [L], section 3.06. The owner of the copyright of a work has the exclusive right for

reproduce or copy the work,
prepare derivative works,
distribute the work,
perform the work publicly,
display the work publicly.

Before explaining these terms, exceptions to these rights, and how these rights relate especially to mathematical works, we discuss works for which copyright law cannot be applied. The law is designed to protect creative written works.

Ideas are generally not subject to copyright. From section 102 of [US]:In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
An unoriginal work, or a work ‘mechanically produced’, say by a computer program whose use requires no originality, are not copyrightable (more precisely, are not subject to a separate copyright – the program could, for example, output copyrighted elements). For example, the output of an automatic theorem proving program is not copyrightable. On the other hand, the output of an image processing program which takes an image and applies a de-noising algorithm is a “mechanical” derivation of the original image, so the copyright is the same as that of the original.
Facts are is not copyrightable. It doesn’t matter how much money or man power it took to discover, collect, or obtain it. (However, there are various laws which can be used to protect such intellectual property, such as trade secret laws.) For example, you cannot copyright a theorem, such Fermat’s Last Theorem, as it is a fact.
Indeed, section 102(b) of the copyright law (chapter 1, section 102 in [US]) says:

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

I have put `discovery’ in bold for emphasis.

In some cases, a creative arrangement of data is copyrightable, for example, statistical data displayed in an unusual way, even if the data itself is not.
Works in the public domain (in particular most ‘official’ works by the U. S. government), are not copyrightable. All written works eventually pass into the public domain. Due to the variety of copyright laws which have been passed in the United States over the years, the duration of copyright depends on when the work was written, if it is a joint work (or a ‘work for hire’) or not, and various other factors. In fact, all of chapter 3 or the copyright code [US] is devoted to to duration, so it is complicated. However, life plus 70 years should apply in most cases.
From section 302(a) of [US]:
In General. — Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death.

For the owner of a creative mathematical work, whether it is an article or a piece of software, we explain next what these rights mean.

Reproduction: A reproduction is to fix a copy in a tangible and relatively permanent form, such as a xerox copy or a file on a computer (though a copy stored in your cache is exempted). Aside from non-profit, educational, government, or ‘fair use’, the copyright holder has the sole right to make unlimited copies of the work. For example, if you publish a paper or book, you often sign over your copyright to a publisher. If anyone could make a copy of your article freely, the commercial interest of the publisher would disappear. Similarly, if you wrote a mathematical software program which you wanted to market, you would want to restrict the copies of the program to those who paid for it. A research paper downloaded from the internet and then emailed to a colleague is an example of a reproduction.However, there is a ‘fair use’ exception to copyright law regarding copying for personal use if you are a scholar (at a non-profit institute) or the educational use of your students if you are a teacher (at a non-profit institute). These do not apply to commercial think-tanks or to commercial training centers. The guidelines are different for research than for educational use, but the basic idea is to copy no more than is necessary. The guidelines for education are more strict. Generally, 1000 words or 10% of the material (the minimum of the two) are recommended limits [L], section 10.12.
Derivative works: Only the copyright holder can create a new work which is adapted from the original but which contains copyrightable modifications.From section 101 of [US]:A ‘derivative work’ is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a ‘derivative work’.For example, if you wrote a mathematical textbook and you retained its copyrights, then only you have the right to create a translation into another language or a second edition. Conversely, if you wrote a mathematical software program which you wanted to give away for free but subject to the open source General Public License (GPL), then you want to restrict the modifications or derivations of your program to those who publically redistribute the modified program under the same open source terms. This is what the carefully crafted legal language of the GPL does for you [F], [W]. For analogous license for written (as opposed to software works), there is the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license [C] or the Free Software Foundation Documentation license [F].
Distribution: A work is distributed if it is made available to the ‘public’ in some form. For example, a copy in a public library or a file posted on a world-accessible internet site are publicly distributed. However, defining the term ‘public’ precisely in this context is a technical legal matter, for which we refer to [L], section 8.13.

For more details, we refer to Leaffer, [L], or Joyce et al [J]. You are encouraged to consider placing on your works one of the Creative Commons licenses [C] or one of the FSF licenses [F], whatever you feel is appropriate. These licenses allow others to distribute your work legally, enabling more people can learn from your mathematical efforts.

Bibiliography (I’ve included [Le] and [V] for related and, I think, interesting reading.)

[C] Creative Commons licenses, http://creativecommons.org/license/

[F] Free Software Foundation, http://www.fsf.org/

[J] C. Joyce, M. Leaffer, P. Jaszi, and T. Ochoa, Copyright law, 7th edition, LexisNexis, 2006.

[K]} B. Klemens, Math you can’t use, Brookings Institute Press, Washington DC, 2006.

[Le] L. Lessig, Code 2.0, http://codev2.cc/

[V] S. Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity, NYU Press, 2001.

[W] M. Webblink, Understanding Open Source Software, http://www.nswscl.org.au/journal/51/Mark_H_Webbink.html

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Copyright law as it pertains to mathematics and mathematical software