[R] Regarding {KernSmooth} - Can a package on CRAN have non GPL copyrights?

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2011, Joshua Wiley wrote:

> AFAIK CRAN does not explicitly require use of a GPL license (though
> obviously the license needs to allow at least free access to the
> packages and source).

GPL and the other licences are about distribution.  CRAN requires a 
licence to allow it to distribute packages -- in some cases (e.g. 
mclust) that requires a CRAN exception.

Copyright is an almost entirely orthogonal issue.  In many countries 
all intellectual creation is copyright -- this message is, R itself 
is, my packages are (including my contributions to KernSmooth) -- and 
that does not need to stated.  Matt Wand has chosen to assert his 
copyright in the startup message.  A closely related concept you will 
see in British books is that 'X has asserted his moral right to be 
identified as the author of this work'.

With the freedoms that Open Source licences give goes a moral 
responsibility to give due credit, something we see **far** too little 
of here.

>
> On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Tal Galili <tal.galili at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> I'm not sure who to ask this, so I'm posting this here.
>>
>> I just ran:
>>  require(KernSmooth)
>> And got (I bolded the text):
>> Loading required package: KernSmooth
>> KernSmooth 2.23 loaded
>> *Copyright M. P. Wand 1997-2009*
>> Warning message:
>> package 'KernSmooth' was built under R version 2.12.1
>>
>> What does that mean?
>
> Well, I think that is just a warning that it was built under a
> different version of R than you are currently running it under.
>
> If memory serves, the current KernSmooth is a port to R by Brian
> Ripley; that message suggests the original KernSmooth was copyrighted
> by M. P. Wand from 1997 until 2009 (probably the original author in
> S?).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Josh
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Tal
>>
>>
>> ----------------Contact
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>>
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>>
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>
> -- 
> Joshua Wiley
> Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology
> University of California, Los Angeles
> http://www.joshuawiley.com/
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

-- 
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