[R] [External] Re: [FORGED] Re: Regarding R licensing usage guidance

Abby Spurdle @purd|e@@ @end|ng |rom gm@||@com
Thu Jul 25 03:55:45 CEST 2019


I don't think these threads have answered the original question.

According to the GPL FAQ:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL

"If a programming language interpreter is released under the GPL, does that
mean programs written to be interpreted by it must be under GPL-compatible
licenses? ...The interpreted program, to the interpreter, is just
data... However, when the interpreter is extended to provide “bindings” to
other facilities (often, but not necessarily, libraries), the interpreted
program is effectively linked to the facilities it uses through these
bindings. So if these facilities are released under the GPL, the
interpreted program that uses them must be released in a GPL-compatible
way..."

My interpretation of that, is that the Anamika's R program would need to be
GPL-compatible.

This issue is not completely straightforward.
(e.g. You can have an interpreted program within an interpreted program).
And CRAN packages released under permissive licenses (e.g. BSD, MIT) are
questionable.

None of this is intended to mean, that you shouldn't use R.
But rather, if you use R, there are certain constraints, and I would hope
that the benefits of using R outweigh any perceived cost of such
constraints.

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