[R-pkg-devel] Properly referencing copied code

[Ivan Krylov]

В Fri, 12 Jul 2024 20:17:22 +0000
DRC via R-package-devel <r-package-devel using r-project.org> пишет:

> > Has copyright holders of included software in a [ctb] role only  
> 
> I think I'm being asked to add the cph role to essentially every
> author in addition to [ctb]

That's how I'm reading it too.

> but that doesn't seem to be what the CRAN policy wants

I agree that there does seem to be a conflict, with the policy only
asking to use 'cph' for non-'aut' or 'ctb' copyright holders.

> and I still don't know how to decide who gets both.

Technically, the conflict can be resolved by noting that the CRAN
policy doesn't _prohibit_ using 'cph' for 'aut' or 'ctb' co-authors.
Since both your reviewer and help(person) ask for 'cph' for all
copyright holders, it sounds like all co-authors who wrote any code
should get an additional 'cph'.

It would help if CRAN Policy also said that 'cph' should be used for
all copyright holders.

> Right now there are several people who have explicit copyright over
> certain code so I would think just add cph to all those authors? Or
> just give everyone cph who isn't a minor contributor?

It shouldn't be too wrong to say that if someone wrote a nontrivial line
of code you're including in your package, they are a copyright holder.

This is an important cornerstone of "bazaar-style" development of free
software: if many entities own copyright to parts of a computer
program, no single entity has the right to re-license the whole under a
non-free license. Contrast this with "cathedral-style" development
where every contribution is either accompanied by a copyright transfer
document or rewritten from scratch (e.g. SQLite): this lets the single
owner re-license the code under whatever terms they prefer.

Having said that, if you would like to follow the recommendations of
Simon and Tomas and package some of the third-party code for MXE and
macOS recipes, don't hesitate to ask.

-- 
Best regards,
Ivan