Dear All, thanks a lot for all the quick and helpful responses! I'm currently interested in the "stance" of this community towards closed source contributions. The way I understand it, currently my options are quite limited: I would most likely need to use a remote procedure call API, and build one side of the API as GPL. But this would make the coupling much slower and more error-prone.
I was actually hoping to give modellers very efficient access to big image analysis data (single cell results in multi-TB range). Currently R seems not easily combined with the classical closed-source company model. Are there considerations to release just the part that is required to build the interface to R under a more permissive license? All the best, Mario On 24.03.2017 15:44, Marc Schwartz wrote: > See inline... > >> On Mar 24, 2017, at 8:52 AM, Mario Emmenlauer <ma...@emmenlauer.de >> <mailto:ma...@emmenlauer.de>> wrote: >> >> >> Dear All, >> >> I've been following this mailing list for over three years now, but >> its just now that I have realized that R is licensed under GPL! :-) >> >> I'm not a lawyer and I don't want lawyer advice, but I'd like to get >> your feedback on a license question. > > > Hi, > > With the usual IANAL caveat and that I am not speaking on behalf of any other > parties: > > The questions you are posing will require legal advice, so your desire above > to > not get legal advice is in direct conflict with what you actually need here. > > To your comments below, you cannot change existing licenses on software, R or > otherwise. That is only something that the copyright holder(s) can do and you > are not one of them. > > The GPL has a FAQ here: > > https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html > > that you may find enlightening. > > A very general statement, which is that if your compiled code (in whatever > language) does not "link" against R's libraries and does not directly contain > GPL licensed code (e.g. copying and pasting R Foundation copyrighted source > code > into yours), that is one way to steer clear of the viral part of the GPL > license > vis-a-vis R, if you want to, but not the only way and not a guarantee either. > There can be nuances, some of which are covered in the FAQ above. > > On the other hand, if your compiled code is linking to R's libraries, which > you > seem to suggest may be the case below, then your code, at least the relevant > parts of it, will need to be licensed under a GPL compatible license. > > This again is part of the nuance, in terms of the scope of the impact on your > code (all or parts) and where legal advice is needed, to steer clear of > downstream potential issues that could result in legal and financial > liabilities > for you. > > The issue of linking to third party proprietary libraries is something that > you > will have to evaluate with respect to their licenses and any limitations that > they may impose on your code and it's licensing. > > Since you seem to also be suggesting that you may use closed source components > in your package, you should be aware, that vis-a-vis CRAN, you would not be > able > to submit your package for distribution via that channel, since CRAN > submissions > may not contain pre-compiled binaries or similar and the entire package must > conform to a compatible open source license. Thus, if you go down that path, > you > would have to find other distribution channels for your package, such as a > company web site, etc. > > None of the above should be construed as legal advice and if you plan to go > down > the path of offering a commercial service that you would charge clients for, a > lawyer is mandatory to provide legal guidance and to assess your business > risks. > Even if your actual R related package is offered free of charge, while > generating revenue through other means, if you should run afoul of software > licensing requirements, that can still leave you open to financial liabilities > and put your business and even personal assets at risk. > > Regards, > > Marc Schwartz > > >> My goal is to develop commercial >> software for image analysis of biomedical samples that may be used >> i.e. in academic institutions. Since I've been an academic software >> developer for long, a priority for me is to make the data and tools >> easily accessibly for other developers. I have toyed with the idea to >> make a (free) R package that can very efficiently fetch data from the >> database and push back results for visualization. To clarify: I am >> not using R in my software. I'd rather like the institutions of my >> customers to have open (internal) access to their data. >> >> Now for the question: To efficiently get the data into R, I assume a >> package (possibly in C or C++) is the most reasonable way? If yes, >> would such a package automatically be infected by the GPL? If the >> package links to (proprietary closed source) libraries to efficiently >> access the data, would the libraries in turn be infected? >> >> I'm asking this very naiively because I understand statement [1] in >> such a way that it is generally encouraged to make data available in >> R. Obviously open source is the preferred way, but my understanding >> is that also closed source extensions can add value and may be >> welcome. >> >> I was therefore hoping that somebody has prior experience in this >> regard, or can shed further light on statement [1]. Is the R-C- >> interface infectious per se, even when data flows only into R, not >> vice versa? If its infectious, could just the very core of R be >> licensed additionally under a non-infectious license? >> >> Furthermore, can I avoid infecting my full software stack, for example >> by making only the package open source under a permissive license? Are >> there any guidelines how to legally bridge between the proprietary and >> the R-world? I guess other people have tried this before, can someone >> share his/her experience? >> >> [1] https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-devel/2009-May/053248.html >> >> All the best, >> >> Mario Emmenlauer >> Viele Gruesse, Mario Emmenlauer -- BioDataAnalysis GmbH, Mario Emmenlauer Tel. Buero: +49-89-74677203 Balanstr. 43 mailto: memmenlauer * biodataanalysis.de D-81669 München http://www.biodataanalysis.de/ ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel