peter dalgaard <pdalgd <at> gmail.com> writes: > On Feb 16, 2012, at 12:31 , Hans W Borchers wrote: > > > I have often seen the use of routines from the ACM Collected Algorithms, > > i.e. <netlib.org/toms/≥ (CALGO, or Trans. On Math. Software, TOMS), in > > Open Source programs, maybe also in some R packages --- and sometimes > > these programs are distributed under the GPL license, sometimes under > > proprietary licenses, e.g. in Scilab. > > > > The use of these CALGO programs is subject to the ACM Software Copyright > > and License Agreement <www.acm.org/publications/policies/softwarecrnotice> > > which includes the following paragraph: > > > > **Commercial Use** > > Any User wishing to make a commercial use of the Software must contact > > ACM at permissions <at> acm.org to arrange an appropriate license. > > Commercial use includes > > (1) integrating or incorporating all or part of the source code into a > > product for sale or license by, or on behalf of, User to third parties, > > (2) distribution of the binary or source code to third parties for use > > with a commercial product sold or licensed by, or on behalf of, User. > > > > I assume that this license extension is not compatible with GPL, but may > > be wrong here. So my question is: Can software from the ACM Collected > > Algorithms be distributed under a GPL-compatible licence, and how to > > formulate and where to put such a license extension. > > One needs to tread _really_ carefully with these items. > > You plain can't claim that the ACM license is compatible with the GPL; it > just isn't. However, there are cases where software has been placed in the > Public Domain in addition to being published by an ACM Journal. E.g., the > NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) library is in the Public Domain even > though some of its routines have been published in TOMS.
And how can I be sure that these algorithms have been rightly placed on the NSWC library page under a license different from its original ACM license? I am inclined to be quite suspicious about that. Best, Hans Werner > However, I am not a lawyer, etc... > > -pd > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.