[R-sig-Geo] McSpatial discontinued

[Roger Bivand]

On Sat, 30 Mar 2013, Thomas Adams wrote:

> Roger,
>
> I don't understand; since akima is freely available for download (and other
> packages use akima) from CRAN, how does this licensing work? Are the
> developers using akima in their packages paying a fee to the akima
> developer? Just curious...

If you read:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gsoc-r/8ZUQCVlyodk

and the link to the ACM license, it should be clear, for non-commercial 
use, the end user is not encumbered, but commercial use as defined 
in that license requires permission. Someone downloading a CRAN package 
which depends on akima, could find themselves in breach of this 
stipulation unawares. Changes on CRAN aim to ensure that no user should be 
able to do this without having "opted in", hence the tightening of 
policies with regard to packages like akima.

Hope this clarifies,

Roger

>
> Thank you,
> Tom
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 4:10 PM, Roger Bivand <Roger.Bivand at nhh.no> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 29 Mar 2013, Andreas Forø Tollefsen wrote:
>>
>>  Dear r-sig-geo people,
>>>
>>> I have previously used the McSpatial package. However, according to it's
>>> website it is removed from the CRAN library. Hence, it is not available for
>>> R 2.15.3.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know if the project is closed down?
>>>
>>
>> I do not know specifically, but CRAN policies with regard to dependency on
>> non-free software (McSpatial depends on akima, which has a non-free
>> license) have been been made clearer. Packages depending on akima and
>> others with similar status must modify their own licenses, or split out the
>> functions involved, obliging the user to opt into the non-free license of
>> the upstream dependency.
>>
>> You may download the source package from the CRAN package archives:
>>
>> http://cran.r-project.org/src/**contrib/Archive/McSpatial/<http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/McSpatial/>
>>
>> and install it from source yourself.
>>
>> In this case, its author, Daniel McMillen and I are hoping that a
>> replacement for akima will be an adopted Google Summer of Coding project if
>> R gets enough project slots - see:
>>
>> https://groups.google.com/**forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gsoc-**r/8ZUQCVlyodk<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gsoc-r/8ZUQCVlyodk>
>>
>> If/when that happens, we will have a viable alternative under a free
>> license.
>>
>> CRAN has to be concerned about license management, because (if one was a
>> lawyer, I am not!) funded research might be seen as a commercial activity,
>> as might courses for which participants pay. So many universities and
>> research labs are asking for better control of the licenses of R
>> contributed packages, and CRAN is trying to help to sort things out.
>>
>> Hope this clarifies,
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
>>
>>> Andreas
>>>
>>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Roger Bivand
>> Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics,
>> Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
>> voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
>> e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no
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>>
>
>
>

-- 
Roger Bivand
Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics,
Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 95 43
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no