[R] Commercial or not?

[Barry Rowlingson]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 9:52 AM, Pancho Mulongeni
<p.mulongeni at namibia.pharmaccess.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
> Let's say someone uses an R package (prefer to not disclose which) that comes with two different distributions,the commercial and non-commercial license. Now the non commercial license has conditions,bit it never runs out. So if this person knows they should be using the commercial license, because they are not a student and are paid for their work , (ie they are outside the non-commercial license) how can one convince management at the institution/company/not for profit to buy the commercial one? Is it even necessary? Thanks.

 If the non-commercial license never runs out, then that's irrelevant
to commercial use.

 If the user knows they should be using the commercial license, then
yes, they should buy the commercial license. Even if they don't know
they should be using the commercial license. Ignorance of the law is
no excuse.

 How do you convince company management to buy licenses? Point them to
any news stories about being raided by the BSA. The inconvenience will
probably cost more in downtime than license fees. Or show them that
the package you want to use is cheaper than other commercial
solutions. Or do a cost-benefit analysis ("Reimplementing these
methods will take X hours = Y dollars >> Cost of Package").


Standard "I am not a lawyer but I had a law PhD girlfriend and used to
read her legal theory books" disclaimer applies.

Barry