Skip to content

[R-pkg-devel] script translation - good practice?

4 messages · Raphael Bonnet, Peter Dalgaard

#
Hi everyone,

I just rewrote a bit of Matlab code into R and that I would like to make 
it available for the community.
Unfortunately this bit of code has been published by authors that I've 
never contacted.

I was wondering if I could submit a package to CRAN by keeping the same 
license as the journal in which the code was published and citing the 
paper and the authors.
Can I associate myself as [cre, trl] in the description file?

Thanks,
Raphael
#
Not a lawyer, but...

I would expect that it depends on what license it was published under originally. If it doesn't explicitly allow the creation of derivative works, then I would be wary.

-pd

  
    
#
Thank you Peter for your response,

It looks ok for the license. The journal's content appears to be under 
this license:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Raphael

Le 18/09/2019 ? 14:11, peter dalgaard a ?crit?:
#
Yes. Check out

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses

and also note that CC-BY is not recommended as a software license (by CC themselves). As there is one-way compatibility, it should be possible to clarify the situation by putting your derivative work under the GPL.

Although not legally required, it would probably be good manners to inform the original authors.

-pd