[R] How can you buy R?

[Prof Brian Ripley]

The issue in the glmmADMB example is not if they were required to release 
it under GPL (my reading from the GPL FAQ is that they probably were not, 
given that communication is between processes and the R code is 
interpreted).

Rather, it is stated to be under GPL _but_ there is no source code offer 
for the executables (and the GPL FAQ says that for anonymous FTP it should 
be downloadable via the same site, and the principles apply equally to 
HTTP sites).  As the executables are not for my normal OS and I would like 
to exercise my freedom to try the GPLed code, I have requested the sources 
from the package maintainer.

Once again, the GPL FAQ and its references, 
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html, are a more informed source than 
mailing lists.  If you think you understand it, try the exam at

http://www.gnu.org/cgi-bin/license-quiz.cgi

(cheaper than testing in court).

On Sat, 20 May 2006, Berwin A Turlach wrote:

> G'day Spencer,
>
>>>>>> "SG" == Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at pdf.com> writes:
>
>    SG> I'm not an attorney, but it would seem to me any code written
>    SG> in R is arguably "derived from" R.
> IANAL either, and I long since stopped reading gnu.misc.discuss in
> which the interpretation of the various licences are regularly
> discussed.
>
>    SG> Even if R code were not "derived from" R, I don't see how it
>    SG> could "reasonably be considered independent" of R.
> R is one implementation of the S language.  If the R code works
> without modification under S-PLUS (another implementation), then I
> believe you can argue that it is independent of R.
>
> On the user level, it might well be the case that most commands work
> in R and S-PLUS, but on the package developer lever there are enough
> differences that typically the same code does not work on both, R and
> S-PLUS, and that you have to make small adjustments depending on the
> package.  If all R specific code is within "if(is.R())" constructs
> (and likewise for all S-PLUS specific code), then you can probably
> still argue independence.
>
> It might become trickier if you handle the R/S-PLUS specific code
> externally via Perl/Python/??? scripts and provide files with
> (slightly) different code for the R package and the S-PLUS package.
> In this case the R code for the R package is presumably derived from R
> and has to be put under the GPL.
>
> A question that always interested me was whether you can used GPL'd
> code in S-PLUS.  At some point, I got the impression that according to
> the GPL the user would violate the GPL if a package contained GPL code
> (in particular C and/or FORTRAN code) that was dynamically linked into
> S-PLUS by the R code.  My understanding was that in that moment a
> product was created that would have to be wholly under the GPL, so the
> user was violating the GPL and lost the write to use your package.
> For this reason I started to use the LGPL for S-PLUS packages that I
> put on statlib.  I noticed that when these packages were ported to R,
> the licence was changed to GPL, but that is o.k. and allowed by the
> LGPL.  I guess this question will soon become more interesting again
> since there have been e-mails to this mailing list that S-PLUS wants
> to become more compatible to R so that packages developed for R can be
> easily used (ported?) to S-PLUS.  I guess the guys in Insightful have
> to be very careful on how they do that... :)
>
>    SG> A "boundary" case is provided by the "glmmADMB" package.  As I
>    SG> read the GPL, this package must operate under GPL.
> According to the DESCRIPTION file (at least the 0.3 version for linux)
> it does.
>
>    SG> This means that if anyone wants their source code, the authors
>    SG> of that package are required to give it to them.
> I agree, but isn't it all there?  Or are you talking about the files
> in the (inst/)admb directory?  The authors of that package should
> probably write somewhere tht the files in that directory are not under
> the GPL and everything would be fine.
>
>    SG> I just noticed that the version of "glmmADMB" that I
>    SG> downloaded 3/14/2006 does NOT contain a "src" subdirectory.
>    SG> This surprises me, given the comment on
>    SG> "http://cran.fhcrc.org/banner.shtml" that "we generally do not
>    SG> accept submissions of precompiled binaries".
> But from where die you download it?  I cannot see it on CRAN.  I found
> it on the web-site of Otter Research and, presumably, they are free to
> distribute packages that contain precompiled binaries.
>
>    SG> That is, however, not required by the GPL, as I understand it.
>    SG> Rather, it seems to say that Otter Research
>    SG> (http://www.otter-rsch.com/), who distribute more general "AD
>    SG> Model Builder" software, could be required to make freely
>    SG> available source code for all the binaries they use.  This
>    SG> should be fairly easy for them, because their "AD Model
>    SG> Builder" produces C++ code, which they could easily include in
>    SG> a "src" subdirectory of their package.  The GPL would NOT
>    SG> require them to distribute source code for the "AD Model
>    SG> Builder" itself, since that has an independent existence.
> I definitely agree to the latter.  But from a quick look at the R code
> it seems to me that this packge does not dynamically link any code
> into R.  Rather, it seems that the communication with the precompiled
> binaries are via calls to "system()" and communications via files
> written into a temporary directory.  So while the C++ code could be
> made available in the "src" subdirectory, I don't see why the GPL
> would require them to do so.  Those binaries seem to be also
> stand-alone and independent.  You can probably reverse-engineer the R
> code to see how you could use them without R.
>
>    SG> If anyone has any evidence contradicting the above, I'd like
>    SG> to know.
> I guess the above indicates that I have partly a different
> interpretation than you have.  But, as I said,  I am not a lawyer.
> And as the German proverb goes "Wo kein Klaeger ist, ist auch kein
> Richter"---which means that you will probably only get definite
> answers to these licences questions by testing them in court.  Good
> luck if you choose to do so. :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
>        Berwin

-- 
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