> On Oct 22, 2020, at 11:19 AM, Marc Schwartz <marc_schwa...@me.com> wrote:
>
> On Oct 22, 2020, at 10:21 AM, Kevin R. Coombes <kevin.r.coom...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am developing a package and getting a NOTE from R CMD check about licenses
>> and ultimate dependencies on a restrictive license, which I can't figure out
>> how to fix.
>>
>> My package imports flowCore, which has an Artistic-2.0 license.
>> But flowCore imports cytolib, which has a license from the Fred Hutchinson
>> Cancer Center that prohibits commercial use.
>>
>> I tried using the same license as flowCore, but still get the NOTE. Does
>> anyone know which licenses can be used to be compatible with the Fred Hutch
>> license? Or can I just do what flowCore apparently does and ignore the NOTE?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Kevin
>
>
> Hi Kevin,
>
> I have not looked at BioC's licensing requirements, but presumably, they are
> ok with the non-commercial use restrictions placed on users of cytolib, thus
> also on flowCore.
>
> If you want your package to be on CRAN, those restrictions on users are not
> allowed by CRAN's policy:
>
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html
>
> "Such packages are not permitted to require (e.g., by specifying in
> ‘Depends’, ‘Imports’ or ‘LinkingTo’ fields) directly or indirectly a package
> or external software which restricts users or usage."
>
>
> Thus, you would seem to need to make a decision on hosting your package on
> CRAN, but without the need to import from flowCore/cytolib, or consider
> hosting your package on BioC, with the attendant restrictions on commercial
> use.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc Schwartz
Well....
Now that I look at:
https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/share/licenses/license.db
there are a few licenses listed there that do place restrictions on commercial
use.
These include some Creative Commons Non-Commercial use variants and the ACM
license.
Is the license DB file out of date, or is there an apparent conflict with the
CRAN policy that I quoted above?
Anyone with an ability to comment?
Regards,
Marc
______________________________________________
R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
