Hi All:
I know this has been discussed at length already, but 1) I get R-Help
in digest and didn't see this until 3am Pacific time this morning, and
2) We, REvolution, have been discussing this as of late. I thought I
would pass on some of the knowledge we have recently obtained vis a
vis the GPL and R.
First, I would like to say that you have already received some great
advice and some good pointers to information about R and its use of
the GPL. I'm only hoping to augment that information. Plus, I'm not
a lawyer, but I have been visiting with lawyers a lot lately and this
information comes from my interpretation of what they have told me
about the GPL, specifically with respect to R.
With respect to your specific question, the GPL license in R would
only have bearing on your code should you decide to distribute it and
only when you distribute it and then only if you linked some compiled
code to it (think C/C++/FORTRAN). So, if you are only distributing
the compiled code within your corporation, you only have to provide
the source for your code to your own colleagues as the GPL states that
the code must be available upon request and only your colleagues
should know about the code's existence to request it. If you are only
creating script, then the GPL license provided in R provides an
exception as discussed below. Note that installing R on your system
does not GPL license all code on your system.
The topic of Linux being GPL is not really relevant. Generally,
software libraries in Linux are provided with a LGPL license to avoid
the GPL problem you describe. Also, there are exceptions in the GPL
for Linux device drivers to prevent them from infecting code in
Linux. So, using Linux is a different discussion than using R.
A better analogy for using R in corporate environments than something
like apache is the BASH shell. BASH is GPL, but your BASH script is
not GPL as there is an exception in the standard GPL for interpreted
languages.
With respect to commercial versions of R, these R distributions will
not have different licenses than the GPL already in R. Unless all of
R Core and other copyright holders to the R source provide an
exception to the GPL license in R, any commercial distribution of R
will also have the same GPL license. It is doubtful that an exception
will ever be granted for the R source code itself. What these
commercial distributions do provide is support and services on top of
open source R and in our case replacement of the BLAS routines with
optimized ones.
If your legal department is still concerned, have them look at the
license in Java. It most likely is GPL (unless you have a special
commercial version of Java installed) and thus makes any Java program
you create subject to the GPL in Java due to the JIT compiler used in
Java. If your legal department does not have a problem with Java,
then they should not have a problem with R.
And again, I am not a lawyer and you are receiving third hand
information (some lawyers to me, and from me to you).
By the way, I enjoyed the y0k discussion...
Thanks!!
Dave H
On Jul 29, 2008, at 3:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
From: zerfetzen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: July 28, 2008 11:32:04 AM PDT
To: r-help@r-project.org
Subject: [R] Legality Question about R's Open Source GNU GPL License
Hi,
I use R at home, and am interested in using it at my work company
(which is
in the Fortune 100). I began the request, and our legal team has
given some
gruff about the open source license. Not boring you with the
details here,
but I used some info on gnu.org as a rebuttal, and someone at the
company
replied that the generalities of GNU GPL may differ from R's
specific GNU
GPL license, and that I should refer specifically to it, and it
should be on
the CRAN website.
I may be blind, but haven't seen such a document. Does one exist,
and how
may I obtain it? I believe they are wrong. Our legal team is
notorious for
being overly conservative, and I'm personally betting they think I
won't
look into it, and then they won't have to deal with it. But I will,
and I
want to use R. Thanks.
PS
Sorry if the document was posted and obvious, and I simply couldn't
find it.
Thanks.
--
View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/Legality-Question-about-R%27s-Open-Source-GNU-GPL-License-tp18696623p18696623.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
--
David Henderson, Ph.D.
Director of Community
REvolution Computing
1100 Dexter Avenue North, Suite 250
206-577-4778 x3203
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.revolution-computing.com
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