[R-pkg-devel] Licenses

[Marc Schwartz]

> On Oct 22, 2020, at 11:19 AM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz using me.com> wrote:
> 
> On Oct 22, 2020, at 10:21 AM, Kevin R. Coombes <kevin.r.coombes using gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I am developing a package and getting a NOTE from R CMD check about licenses and ultimate dependencies on a restrictive license, which I can't figure out how to fix.
>> 
>> My package imports flowCore, which has an Artistic-2.0 license.
>> But flowCore imports cytolib, which has a license from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center that prohibits commercial use.
>> 
>> I tried using the same license as flowCore, but still get the NOTE. Does anyone know which licenses can be used to be compatible with the Fred Hutch license? Or can I just do what flowCore apparently does and ignore the NOTE?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>>  Kevin
> 
> 
> Hi Kevin,
> 
> I have not looked at BioC's licensing requirements, but presumably, they are ok with the non-commercial use restrictions placed on users of cytolib, thus also on flowCore.
> 
> If you want your package to be on CRAN, those restrictions on users are not allowed by CRAN's policy:
> 
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html
> 
> "Such packages are not permitted to require (e.g., by specifying in ‘Depends’, ‘Imports’ or ‘LinkingTo’ fields) directly or indirectly a package or external software which restricts users or usage."
> 
> 
> Thus, you would seem to need to make a decision on hosting your package on CRAN, but without the need to import from flowCore/cytolib, or consider hosting your package on BioC, with the attendant restrictions on commercial use.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Marc Schwartz


Well....

Now that I look at:

  https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/share/licenses/license.db

there are a few licenses listed there that do place restrictions on commercial use.

These include some Creative Commons Non-Commercial use variants and the ACM license.

Is the license DB file out of date, or is there an apparent conflict with the CRAN policy that I quoted above?

Anyone with an ability to comment?

Regards,

Marc