[Rd] License statement

Scott Gonyea scott at aitrus.org
Thu Dec 23 03:04:13 CET 2010


Heh.  That's annoying.  The R Mailing List should really set the "reply-to" header.

I wrote two e-mail, so here they are:


There's a 'source' command in R, so I should not use that word.  If you're not copying out chunks of code and inserting them, you own the code itself.  No one can somehow take that away from you, unless they paid you to write it and your contract does not say that you own it.

The big issue is "bundling."  ie, creating a .tgz with all of the R packages AND your stuff (source code OR binary), IF your licenses are incompatible AND you intend to distribute your new "package"--that is, distribution external from whichever entity claims ownership.

Scott


Which was a correction to:


The issue is the bundling of the code, contained inside those packages.  As long as you're not sourcing material from inside them, license it how you want.  If you want, your license should be stamped at the top of your source files with something like:

# [COMPANY] CONFIDENTIAL. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS SOURCE CODE IS PROHIBITED. [HR POLICY]

Scott


Scott^3

On Dec 22, 2010, at 2:35 PM, David Scott wrote:

> I am writing a package for a company for its internal use only.
> 
> What is an appropriate license statement for the DESCRIPTION file?
> 
> I would like a statement which reflects the private and proprietary nature of the package, giving copyright to the writer and the company. I also don't want to violate the licensing of R and the packages I am using (RODBC, ggplot2, zoo).
> 
> David Scott
> 
> -- 
> _________________________________________________________________
> David Scott	Department of Statistics
> 		The University of Auckland, PB 92019
> 		Auckland 1142,    NEW ZEALAND
> Phone: +64 9 923 5055, or +64 9 373 7599 ext 85055
> Email:	d.scott at auckland.ac.nz,  Fax: +64 9 373 7018
> 
> Director of Consulting, Department of Statistics
> 
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