[R] RE: SCO & R

[Spencer Graves]

      The intellectual property questions raised by the GNU General 
Public License (GPL) are under active discussion in PDF Solutions, where 
Sundar Dorai-Raj and I work.  Sundar and I have recommended linking PDF 
commercial software to R.  However, we have to be careful how we do 
this, because the GPL requires that the source for "all derivative 
works" be made public.  Unfortunately, it seems unclear exactly what 
constitutes a "derivative work", although the GPL states that it does 
not apply to "independent and separate works ... when you distribute 
them as separate works." 

       Does anyone have information on this, beyond the groklaw and 
Forbes items already mentioned?  For example, are there good examples to 
follow, or are all the published case studies negative like those 
already been mentioned? 

      It seems to me that a commercial company could comply with the GPL 
without jeopardizing its ability to pay employees and stockholders by 
distributing its  software in two, separately installed pieces:  The 
first would provide the base, commercial, proprietary software under a 
commercial license.  The second would include all components distributed 
under the GPL license, and would add capabilities to the first.  I think 
something like this would benefit both the R Foundation and commercial 
software distributors.  However, our legal department has yet to rule on 
this, and our management is not eager to move without the blessing of 
our corporate legal. Therefore, more solid information, published case 
studies, etc., would help. 

      Thanks,
      spencer graves

Berton Gunter wrote:

>My $.02 (sorry, couldn't resist).
>
>This is but one skirmish in the whole vexatious battle on "intellectual property
>rights," which extends from software to many other venues, one of the most
>interesting of which is patents on human genes. An example I heard on the radio
>this morning was eHarmony.com patenting their algorithm for matchmaking, which,
>the commentator said, is based on a 431 item questionnaire (yet another reason to
>celebrate my long marriage; 431 questions -- yikes!) ! Needless to say, the
>potential fodder for editorializing both for and against this intrusion of
>"scientific method" into romance seems limitless. Do you think support vector
>machines or neural nets lurk in the background of their "algorithm"?
>
>Anyway, the only predictions that I think it safe to make are: (1) We have only
>begun to fight -- and, yes, seeming samaritans (or is it samurai?) like R and GPL
>may yet have to engage; (2) advances in technology will only turn the heat up and
>pose yet more problems, as we move relentlessly from "thingy" inventions running
>our world to 'idea-y" inventions running it.
>
>Matchmaking, anyone?
>
>(Thanks for your indulgence).
>
>Cheers,
>Bert
>
>"Siddique, Amer" wrote:
>
>  
>
>>SCO is grasping for straws. and is now gasping. vexatious lawsuits will only
>>drive so far before puttering out. eventually the curtain gets pulled back
>>on glorified attempts at racketeering. cheers.
>>
>>Message: 76
>>Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 21:08:12 -0500
>>From: Deepayan Sarkar <deepayan at stat.wisc.edu>
>>Subject: Re: [R] SCO & R
>>To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>Message-ID: <200405272108.12664.deepayan at stat.wisc.edu>
>>Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>>On Thursday 27 May 2004 20:18, Greg Tarpinian wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Actually, it was very recent.  I pulled the electronic version of the
>>>article from the Forbes website:
>>>      
>>>
>>I would think twice before taking forbes articles too seriously. For
>>instance, they seem to think that protecting intellectual property
>>rights are all right when it's some big commercial company doing the
>>protecting, but not when they are on the other side of the table. See
>>this article from last year:
>>
>>http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/14/cz_dl_1014linksys.html
>>
>>______________________________________________
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>>    
>>
>
>--
>
>Bert Gunter
>
>Non-Clinical Biostatistics
>Genentech
>MS: 240B
>Phone: 650-467-7374
>
>
>"The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning
>process."
>
> -- George E.P. Box
>
>______________________________________________
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>  
>