[R] What a contortion of the GPL.

[Paul E Johnson]

Concerning this licensing from the Design library:
>  ### GENERAL DISCLAIMER  This program is free software;
>  ### you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
>  ### terms of the GNU General Public License [...]
>  ### with the exception that you may not port any code
>  ### in the Design library to R.  [...]
>  ### In short: you may
>  ### use this code any way you like other than porting
>  ### any of the code to R, as long as you don't charge
>  ### money for it, remove this notice, or hold anyone
>  ### liable for its results.  [...]

This is kind-of amazing, I've never seen anything like it. I can't
imagine a reason why a person would make this restriction,  but I guess
there is an interesting story behind it?  I do think the exception
stated violates the GPL itself, and so a lawyer would argue that this
copyright is effectively meaningless.

Now, concerning the terminology "port the code to R", since I'm not a
programmer, I can ask this with a straight face: is there a wedge
between the R distribution and the programs I write that access R? 
Obviously, R can't assimilate this code into the R distribution, but
maybe it does not stop a person from making a personal use of this code
in his own programs.  After you finish laughing, nod once for yes and
twice for no.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: pauljohn at ukans.edu
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700
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