[R] Legality Question about R's Open Source GNU GPL License

[Roland Rau]

Jim Porzak wrote:
> All this is included in the distribution in "doc" folder:
> 
> 1. see FAQ: "2.11 Can I use R for commercial purposes?"
> 2. Specific GNU License is in file COPYING
> 
Furthermore,

the start-up message of R can (hopefully) help you in your case.
It mentions to type in
license()
or
licence()
to read more about the license.

In addition, maybe you can refer your legal department to the site:
http://www.r-project.org/foundation/memberlist.html
Of course, it is no proof of anything (and I have to mention that I did 
not study law myself), but it might give your legal department some 
impression that many companies are using the software. Check the list of 
Benefactors, Supporters and Donors: maybe there is a competitor of your 
company? Maybe they could gain some advantage by using R? ;-)

Best,
Roland








> 
> HTH,
> Jim Porzak
> Responsys, Inc.
> San Francisco, CA
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimporzak
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 11:32 AM, zerfetzen <zerfetzen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I use R at home, and am interested in using it at my work company (which is
>> in the Fortune 100).  I began the request, and our legal team has given some
>> gruff about the open source license.  Not boring you with the details here,
>> but I used some info on gnu.org as a rebuttal, and someone at the company
>> replied that the generalities of GNU GPL may differ from R's specific GNU
>> GPL license, and that I should refer specifically to it, and it should be on
>> the CRAN website.
>>
>> I may be blind, but haven't seen such a document.  Does one exist, and how
>> may I obtain it?  I believe they are wrong.  Our legal team is notorious for
>> being overly conservative, and I'm personally betting they think I won't
>> look into it, and then they won't have to deal with it.  But I will, and I
>> want to use R.  Thanks.
>>
>> PS
>> Sorry if the document was posted and obvious, and I simply couldn't find it.
>> Thanks.
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Legality-Question-about-R%27s-Open-Source-GNU-GPL-License-tp18696623p18696623.html
>> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at 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.
>>
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.
>