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Legality of copying from Splus.

7 messages · Rolf Turner, Brian Ripley, Michael Camann +2 more

Original
Rolf Turner
# 
A few days ago, I sent a question to the r-help list enquiring
about the

		        *** LEGALITY ***

of porting a function from Splus into R.  As a particular example,
I referred to error.bar.

Several people posted code for various versions of error.bar which
they had written, but that was NOT WHAT I WAS ASKING FOR/ABOUT!!!

[Can't anybody ***read*** these days?]

I asked:  IS IT LEGAL/ETHICAL to take a copy of an Splus function
(written in raw S), ***such as*** error.bar, and make it into an R
function?  Is it OK to do this for one's own personal use?  What
about making such a function available to other R users (who may not
have Splus licenses)?

Would the big guns from the R community please comment on this?

					cheers,

						Rolf Turner
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A.J. Rossini
# 
rolf> [Can't anybody ***read*** these days?]

    rolf> I asked:  IS IT LEGAL/ETHICAL to take a copy of an Splus function
    rolf> (written in raw S), ***such as*** error.bar, and make it into an R
    rolf> function?  Is it OK to do this for one's own personal use?  What
    rolf> about making such a function available to other R users (who may not
    rolf> have Splus licenses)?

    rolf> Would the big guns from the R community please comment on this?

I'm not a big gun, but the answer is NO.

Don't go there, don't do it, write "clean room" reversed engineered
versions (i.e. describe the activity to a coder who hasn't seen the
code) when possible.

best,
-tony
Brian Ripley
#
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Rolf Turner wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Isn't this a question about your S-PLUS license and to be addressed to your
intellectual property rights dept (and many Universities now have one)
and/or the ethics committee?  It is also country-specific (and that can
make a vast difference).  To find out about legality, ask a lawyer.

However, even a lawyer needs to know some of the details.  Here are two
extracts from the S+2000 License (for the US, I believe, since they are
clipped from a PDF manual) which indicate the scope of the claims which
such a license makes:

  Both the Software and the documentation are protected under
  applicable copyright laws, international treaty provisions, and trade
  secret statutes of the various states. This Agreement grants you a
  personal, limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use the
  Software and the documentation.

  You may not translate, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble
  the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is
  expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.

(BTW, these extracts are copyright too, used here under `fair use'
provisions.)

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Michael Camann
    

    

      
      #
    

  


  

      
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Rolf Turner wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
Evidently I (and others) misunderstood your request.  I thought you were
asking about the specific function error.bar().  Since your question is
more general, I assume that you actually have an S-Plus license or that
you have unlicensed access to S-Plus code.  If that's the case, have you
***read*** the copyright?  I should think that it's rather clear on this
issue.

While on the topic, I suggest that you read the Free Software Foundation
GNU Public License, under which R and many (all?) of its contributed
packages are  released.  It too is quite specific regarding such things as
how R code  propogates its open source model into deriviative software
built onto R or R packages licensed under the GPL.

BTW, does anyone else on the list know the license status of code posted
to the list, e.g. the ebars() function that I posted in response to Rolf's
inquiry?  How about when that code is later incorporated into a package
released under a specific license?  For example, the ebars() function I
posted is part of a toolset for analyses of ecological data that I plan
to release later this year under the GPL.  Did I relinquish my copyright
by posting it here without specific reference to it's license for use?

--Mike C.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael A. Camann                                  Voice: 707-826-3676
Associate Professor of Zoology                       Fax: 707-826-3201
Institute for Forest Canopy Research     Email: mac24 at axe.humboldt.edu
Department of Biology                            ifcr at axe.humboldt.edu
Humboldt State University
Arcata, CA 95521

                 URL:http://www.humboldt.edu/~mac24/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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      A.J. Rossini
    

    

      
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michael> BTW, does anyone else on the list know the license status
    michael> of code posted to the list, e.g. the ebars() function
    michael> that I posted in response to Rolf's inquiry?  How about
    michael> when that code is later incorporated into a package
    michael> released under a specific license?  For example, the
    michael> ebars() function I posted is part of a toolset for
    michael> analyses of ecological data that I plan to release later
    michael> this year under the GPL.  Did I relinquish my copyright
    michael> by posting it here without specific reference to it's
    michael> license for use?

I AM NOT A LAWYER, but as far as I know, in the USA, you have
copyright legally until you disclaim it.  i.e. putting things into the
public domain must be done explicitly (BTW, public domain is a
technical term which doesn't cover restricted use licenses, i.e. any
license).

best,
-tony

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      A.J. Rossini
    

    

      
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a> Don't go there, don't do it, write "clean room" reversed engineered
    a> versions (i.e. describe the activity to a coder who hasn't seen the
    a> code) when possible.

As pointed out in a private email, the above is technically
incorrect.  "re-implemented" is what I should've have said.

(again, I'm not a lawyer).

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Roger D. Peng
    

    

      
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I believe the license status is determined by you and your copyright over
the code is effective immediately (as soon as you post it).  I think most
people who post code here implicitly put it in the public domain, but that
does not need to be the case.

-roger
_______________________________
UCLA Department of Statistics
rpeng at stat.ucla.edu
http://www.stat.ucla.edu/~rpeng

        
On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Michael Camann wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
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