[R-gui] GPL licensing issues with a commercial R GUI

Rserve would be a convenient means to get around dynamic linking.

The "derivative work" clause of the GPL has never been clear to me. Where to
draw the line? Why should piping data between processes be treated any
different from dynamic linking? They're just different interfaces to achieve
approximately the same effect.

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 4:15 AM, Gavin Simpson <gavin.simpson at ucl.ac.uk>
wrote:

  

I am not a lawyer, but at important distinction here is what one means
by "linked". You're not linking against R if you just run some R code
through it and capture the output for example. This is how Brodgar, for
example, does what Serge wants to achieve --- see their statement on R,
Brodgar and the GPL:

www.brodgar.com

http://www.brodgar.com/brodgar.htm#2.%20Brodgar%20and%20R

Whilst, from a personal point of view agree with Michael's statement
about producing an open source app and then sell support, we all don;t
have to follow that moral.

G

On Tue, 2008-05-13 at 02:05 -0700, Michael Lawrence wrote:
    

Well, there's a big question as to whether non-GPL can link to GPL code.
It's never been really tested in court. If I were you, I'd just make it
open-source and sell your support for it.

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 5:19 AM, Serge Merzliakov <
      

smerzlia at optusnet.com.au>
    

wrote:

      

All,
 I am interested in devloping a commercial java-based (why the
        

language is
    

important is discussed later) GUI for R. The app would allow the GUI
        

to edit
    

R commands and the results displayed in varios means. I have
        

investigated
    

various java based libraries to invoke R and they follow the apache
        

license
    

model (friendlier to commercial software developers). I understand the
        

that
    

R is released under the GPL license, which I have a reasonable
        

understanding
    

of.  SO my question is simple, Can I develop a a commerical GUI for R
        

(which
    

would require R to be isntalled separately on the machine) without
        

having to
    

also release my source code ?

I am hoping that some of core R development team see this and can
        

provide
    

useful feedback.

Regards,
Serge

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