On 11/29/2013 05:12 PM, Alan G Isaac wrote: >> On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 2:14 PM, Alan G Isaac wrote: >>> http://www.law.washington.edu/lta/swp/law/derivative.html > On 11/28/2013 5:58 PM, Nathaniel Smith wrote: >> There's no meaningful legal distinction between static and dynamic >> linking. And pretty much everyone agrees that if you do either, for >> any library with a unique interface (and R's C interface, for better >> or worse, is VERY unique ;-)), then your code can only be >> distributed under GPL-compatible terms. >> ... >> rpy2 can legally be re-licensed under any GPL-compatible >> terms, including BSD. > > I believe that Nathan's last statement above is true. > > The first statement is trickier, as the link I provided > above discusses. An example from the linked paper > illustrates some of the conceptual problems. (At least, > I believe so.) > > "consider for a moment the Acrobat Reader plugin for > Firefox, and assume that the browser is licensed under > the GPL. The plugin offers its own set of user interface > buttons and is capable of rendering file formats that > are exotic to Firefox. Does this seem like a derivative > work of Firefox? Whatever our intuition may tell us, > the answer depends - according to the GPL's drafters at > least - on the particulars of the Firefox plugin > architecture. If the plugin architecture launches > plugins and runs them in separate address spaces as > separate, running executables, then the GPL does not > consider Acrobat Reader a derived work of Firefox. On > the other hand, if the plugin is dynamically linked to > Firefox, then the GPL urges the opposite > characterization. This seems to fly in the face of > common sense, which tells us that Acrobat Reader is not > a work derived from Firefox." > > The article makes that case that the common sense view also > has the upper hand legally on this issue. So Nathan is right > that dynamic vs. static linking is not really the right demarcation, > but that observation may not cut in the direction he intended. > > Separately, the issue of "intent" has come up in the form of > "what did the writers of the GPL itend?". Doctrines of > original intent are difficult to pursue, but if one were to > attempt such a path, I think it should rather lead to "did > the authors of R intend their adoption of the GPL to > restrict the license choices of related but not derivative > software such as RPy?" It is hard for me to believe they > did intend this, but the question can only be answered by > asking them. I would find it entirely reasonable to allow > the licensing discussion to be influenced by their answer to > such a question, as a matter of courtesy.
Courtesy ? May be things have changed on the R lists... You are welcome to check it out. ;-) The authors of R go by the name of the "R core", and I'd suspect that the different individuals in that group will have different opinions. If you followed the development of the R ecosystem, you'll remember REvolutions Computing (now Revolutions Analytics). Their license is GPLv2, IIUIC. Their software is somewhat different from rpy2, and this does not mean that this is the only option, but I vaguely remember that there were discussions around it. L. > > Alan > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT > organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance > affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your > Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349351&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > _______________________________________________ > rpy-list mailing list > rpy-list@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rpy-list ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics Pro! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349351&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ rpy-list mailing list rpy-list@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rpy-list
