[R] How can you buy R?

[Berwin A Turlach]

G'day Duncan,

>>>>> "DM" == Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> writes:

    DM> On 5/22/2006 3:55 AM, Berwin A Turlach wrote:

    >> I agree with you on this.  Probably I was to terse in my
    >> writing and produced misunderstandings.  I never intended to
    >> say something about the rights that the user has with regards
    >> to P alone.  My comments were directed towards the linked
    >> product P+Q.  In particular, it is not clear to me whether one
    >> can execute such a product without violating copyright laws.

    DM> The GPL is quite explicit on this: as Deepayan said, it
    DM> confers rights to copy, modify and redistribute P. [..]
Yes, so he did.  But I refer above to copyright laws, not the GPL.  It
is not clear to me under which rules/licence/laws the combined product
falls and whether you have the right to execute it.  And in some
places, including Australia, copyright laws are getting really
strange and restrictive, so it seems.

    DM> Now, I suppose you might argue that executing P+Q makes a copy
    DM> of it in memory, [...]
Yes, I read arguments along these lines on gnu.misc.disucss.
Personally, I wouldn't use them because I know too little about these
processes (and what happens under static linking, dynamic linking and
so on) to make any statements on such issues.  From following such
discussion, I only got the impression that these points seem to be
relevant in defining when (under copyright law) a derivative work is
produced. 

    DM> but I think countries that have modernized their copyright
    DM> laws recognize that this is something you have a right to do
    DM> with a legally acquired copy.
I doubt it, I don't think that the lawyers understand these
technicalities either. ;-))

Cheers,

        Berwin