[R] ACM Software Copyright and License Agreement

[Berend Hasselman]

On 16-02-2012, at 12:31, Hans W Borchers wrote:

> ACM Software Copyright and License Agreement
> 
> 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

I use a modified version of portions of Algorithm 686 (22 years old)(Fortran for updating a QR decomposition) in my package nleqslv, which is distributed under GPL>=2.

> --- 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, or
>    (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 I 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.

So I am certainly interested in what experts have to say about this.

Berend