[Rd] License Conflict?

Prof Brian Ripley ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Mon Jul 21 10:22:02 CEST 2008


On Mon, 21 Jul 2008, Martin Maechler wrote:

>>>>>> "GaGr" == Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com>
>>>>>>     on Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:51:50 -0400 writes:
>
>    GaGr> Is this a true problem?
>
> No;
> as Oholoh mentions there are only two files which mention the
> artistic licence, namely src/main/apse.[ch]

Apart from the licences themselves in share/licenses!  There is a 
potential issue with packages that use an Artistic licence (the quoter 
seems ignorant of the fact that there are more than one), but that applies 
to any package license other than GPL2 and is the responsibility of the 
package owner to check.

Also, some files in share/perl are 'under the same terms as Perl itself', 
that is Artistic or GPL.

> and these two contain
>
>>> Copyright (C) by Jarkko Hietaniemi, 1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2006.
>>> All Rights Reserved.
>>>
>>> This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
>>> it under the terms of either:
>>>
>>> a) the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free
>>>    Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any
>>>    later version, or
>>>
>>> b) the "Artistic License" which comes with Perl source code.
>
> so they are exactly from the group mentioned below as
>
>  "the code in question may be available under multiple licenses"
>
> Thank you, Gabor, for asking.
>
> Martin Maechler
> ETH Zurich and R Core Team
>
>
>    GaGr> Artistic License may conflict
>    GaGr> with GPL The source code for R contains references to
>    GaGr> both the GNU General Public License 2.0 (GPL) and to
>    GaGr> the Artistic License. These two licenses include some
>    GaGr> contradictory restrictions.
>
>    GaGr> The Ohloh source code parser is exhaustive, and can
>    GaGr> reveal licensing requirements which the developers
>    GaGr> themselves may have overlooked or forgotten.
>
>    GaGr> This message is merely a warning. There may not
>    GaGr> actually be any conflict, because the two licenses may
>    GaGr> not apply to the exact same sections of code or the
>    GaGr> code in question may be available under multiple
>    GaGr> licenses. You should review the license requirements
>    GaGr> for this project carefully, especially if you are
>    GaGr> using this code for commercial purposes.
>
>    GaGr> The GNU Project maintains a guide to GPL compatibility
>    GaGr> at their web site.
>
>    GaGr> Above is at this page:
>    GaGr> http://www.ohloh.net/projects/3926/factoids/632981
>
>    GaGr> ______________________________________________
>    GaGr> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>    GaGr> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595



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