On Wed, 2015-04-22 at 11:34 +0000, Roger Bivand wrote: > Martyn Plummer <plummerm <at> iarc.fr> writes: > > > > > I think this is covered well by the CRAN repository policy: > > http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html > > > > The two key license requirements are that: > > 1) CRAN must have a perpetual license to distribute the package > > 2) The package license should be listed here: > > https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/share/licenses/license.db > > Packages with licenses not included in that list are generally not > > accepted. > > > ... > > > > Personally, I would not want to add the extra complexity to a package > > that is otherwise GPL. > > > > Martyn > > > > On Tue, 2015-04-21 at 19:23 -0400, Ben Bolker wrote: > > > Does anyone have speculations about the implications of the GPL for > > > data included in a package, or more generally for restricting use of data? > > > > ... > While I agree with Martyn with respect to code, documentation, and > vignettes, the point Ben raises is relevant and not obvious. Data sets in > say GLP-licensed packages are on occasion challenged by Debian packagers > where it isn't obvious that GPL is appropriate. Some spatial packages are > not accepted for packaging as is because of included data, data that is > needed to run realistic examples. > > The problem could be picky packagers, but it is also reasonable that > well-known example data sets could be licensed differently. > share/licenses/license.db lists for example CC BY-SA 4.0 as both FOSS and > extensible but free_and_GPLv3_incompatible. One possibility I examined when > challenged was to place all such data files in a separate package, for > example under a CC license accepted by CRAN - I didn't complete the task, > but understand Ben's question as applying to the same question.
It is also clearly possible to license data files differently than the package. GPL is copyleft for compiled code. R data files are not compiled/linked into the package, they are included in a tarball or zip file. As such, the copyleft provision of GPL doesn't necessarily apply to non-compiled files in the package collection, and isn't necessarily intended to apply (the Gnu licenses page suggests not using GPL for data). Whether CRAN or Debian packagers would accept a open but mixed code/data license scheme is not for me to say, but I don't see any impediments from the licenses themselves. -- Brian G. Peterson http://braverock.com/brian/ Ph: 773-459-4973 IM: bgpbraverock ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
