Modules in Revolution R are open. Does the R license mean that I can use the R packages that come with it for free?

Question

I noticed that there are some packages in the library folder of my Revolution R installation that are unique to Revolution. So I copied them into my regular R distribution, and these packages worked just fine.

Can I use Revolution packages for free in a commercial environment? I understand that anyone who contributes to R needs to make their efforts open source under the GPL so that everyone can use it and modify it under any setting. Please help me figure this out. Thanks

Answer 1

This is a complex area that is best left to lawyers. But even thanks to free software (FSF), a strict interpretation of the GPL, such a thing is allowed. S is a programming language, and R is an interpreter of this language. The FSF Foundation then claims that the program is just data regarding the translator and, therefore, is a separate work (in terms of copyright). Therefore, it is not GPL bound. see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfInterpreterIsGPL

The core R team agrees with this and at some point released an expression about R-dev that alternative licenses for R packages are allowed. In fact, on CRAN you will see a wide range of licensing terms, some of which are not “free” (that is, optmatch).

Another thing is if Revolution R packages depend on other (non-basic) packages released under the GPL (I don’t know if they do this). The FSF will argue that the packages will be bound by the GPL, but other lawyers will not agree. I asked Stallman on UseR! that he is likely to be tested in court in the near future, which is the only way to resolve this kind of thing, and he said no.

Answer 2

This sounds like a legal issue. Also, this sounds like a GPL related issue. But ... Revolution Analytics really contribute to R - they have already made thousands of insertions into the source code, so they are contributing. They create proprietary components using the licensed GPL source code - a method known as the open base model. Due to modifications to the source, Revolution R is one step behind the “official” version of R (R Community version 3.2 is based on R 2.10.1 sources, and the current R version is 2.11.1).

As Ian already said, you can use community packages for commercial projects, while Enterprise modifications are not free (since without freedom and free beer). Intel MKL is an example of such a proprietary component. Please read the GNU GPL version 2, June 1991 (run RShowDoc("COPYING") in an interactive session). Be sure to check out this link as well as this one .