Prompt:
The DESCRIPTION file of a package contains the package’s meta information. Most of the fields in this file are quite straight forward: author, version number, and a short package description. When you call library(help="<package name>") for package <package name> you can see the contents of the DESCRIPTION file for that package (and some parts of the NAMESPACE file).
Read through Colin Fay’s (short) book on Licensing R
Write a blog post addressing the following questions:
Under what license does R operate? What is the license for ggplot2?
R operates under the the GNU General Public License(V2, from 1991; V3 from 2007). Additionally, a small number of files are distributed under the Lesser GNU General Public License ( > V2.1).
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This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License, either Version 2, June 1991 or Version 3, June 2007.
The terms of version 2 of the license are in a file called COPYING
which you should have received with
this software and which can be displayed by RShowDoc("COPYING").
Version 3 of the license can be displayed by RShowDoc("GPL-3").
Copies of both versions 2 and 3 of the license can be found
at https://www.R-project.org/Licenses/.
A small number of files (the API header files listed in
R_DOC_DIR/COPYRIGHTS) are distributed under the
LESSER GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE, version 2.1 or later.
This can be displayed by RShowDoc("LGPL-2.1"),
or obtained at the URI given.
Version 3 of the license can be displayed by RShowDoc("LGPL-3").
'Share and Enjoy.'On the other hand, ggplot2 operates under a different license: MIT + file
[1] "MIT + file LICENSE"What are the dependencies of the package you made?
Read through chapter 5.2 of Licensing R. Combine and adjust the code pieces to create the dependencies for a package that is on github rather than CRAN. (Don’t forget about the package desc.) What dependencies does the package have that you created for Lab-3? Which licenses are involved? Are all of these dependencies required? Elaborate.
The DESCRIPTION file for the package we, from Team 2, made does not list any dependencies but the package definitely has dependencies. We have failed to include the package dependencies. However, the package needs depends on the packages tabulizer, tidyverse, and lubridate.
Package: Team2
Title: Get police presslogs
Version: 0.0.0.9000
Authors@R: c( person("Caio", "dos Santos", , "clsantos@iastate.edu", role = c("aut", "cre")), person("Alexandrea", "Arabio", ,
"aarabio@iastate.edu", role = "aut"), person("Maxwell", "Skinner", , "mskinn25@iastate.edu", role = "aut") )
Description: This package contains 3 functions to download, extract, and filter presslog data. Also, it contains a sample data
set.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
Depends: R (>= 2.10)
Remotes: github::ropensci/tabulizer
LazyData: true
LitrVersionUsed: 0.7.0
LitrId: 3071b204a7d4052aa4f9e994be3b30a9
NeedsCompilation: no
Packaged: 2023-03-07 21:17:37 UTC; santo
Author: Caio dos Santos [aut, cre], Alexandrea Arabio [aut], Maxwell Skinner [aut]
Maintainer: Caio dos Santos <clsantos@iastate.edu>
Built: R 4.2.1; ; 2023-03-07 21:17:38 UTC; windows
-- File: C:/Users/santo/AppData/Local/R/win-library/4.2/Team2/Meta/package.rds When we try to retrieve the package dependencies, we get the following error:
INFO [2023-03-08 19:09:36] Constructing dependency network for Team2
FATAL [2023-03-08 19:09:36] Package 'Team2' does not have any dependencies in [Imports, Depends]. If you think this is an error consider adding more dependency types in your definition of DependencyReporter. For example: DependencyReporter$new(dep_types = c('Imports', 'Depends', 'Suggests'))Under which license should this blog post be published? Make sure that you are using an appropriate license. (You can change the current licenses with the help of commands from the use_license_XXX family in the usethis package)
An appropriate license for this This blog post seems to be ***CC-BY-NC-SA***.Can I publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when I have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3?
When confronted with the above question, ChatGPT gave two – quite different – responses, as shown below. The main point in both responses is ‘your package may be considered derivative work’. At the specific problem of the package developed for Lab 3, what is your opinion about potential copyright infringements when releasing the package with an MIT license? Make sure to take the relevant passage in Colin Fay’s book under consideration.
The legal implications of publishing an R package on CRAN under an MIT license while having a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3 are complex and can vary depending on the specific circumstances. It is always advisable to seek legal advice from a licensed attorney if you have any doubts or concerns about licensing issues.
However, in general, it is possible to publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when you have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3. This is because the MIT license is a permissive open-source license that allows for more flexibility in how the software can be used and distributed, and it is generally considered compatible with the GPL-3 license.
That being said, if your package depends on a GPL-3-licensed package, your package may be considered a derivative work and therefore subject to the terms of the GPL-3 license. This means that if you distribute your package, you may need to also distribute the source code for your package under the GPL-3 license or a compatible license, and you may need to ensure that the requirements of the GPL-3 license are met for the entire distribution, including any dependencies.
It is also worth noting that the R community has its own guidelines and recommendations for package licensing, and it is important to comply with these guidelines if you want to publish your package on CRAN. The CRAN Repository Policy states that packages should have a "permissive" or "GPL-compatible" license, but does not explicitly require that packages use the GPL license or any other specific license.
In summary, while it is possible to publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license while having a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3, it is important to understand the implications of the different licenses and to ensure that you comply with any applicable guidelines and recommendations from the R community.After harping a bit on copyright infringement in general, ChatGPT changed its response to
Technically, you can publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when you have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3, but doing so would not be compliant with the terms of the GPL-3 license.
The GPL-3 license is a strong copyleft license that requires derivative works to be released under the same license. If your package depends on a GPL-3-licensed package, your package may be considered a derivative work and therefore must be licensed under the GPL-3 license or a compatible license.
The MIT license, on the other hand, is a permissive license that allows for more flexibility in how the software is used and distributed. However, it is not compatible with the GPL-3 license, and therefore cannot be used for derivative works of GPL-3-licensed software.
Publishing an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when you have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3 would be a licensing violation, and could potentially result in legal action or other consequences. It is important to comply with the licensing requirements of all dependencies in your package to avoid any legal issues.The ‘harping’ questions:
Is it legal to publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when I have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3?
Is it illegal to publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when I have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3?
Is it a copyright infringement to publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when I have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3?
Can I publish an R package on CRAN under an MIT license when I have a dependency on a package that is licensed under GPL-3 without infringing copyright?
To me, it seems like you would be all right to publish on CRAN an MIT-licensed package that depends upon a GPL-3 licensed package. The reason is that, when you list a package as a dependency of you the package you are not actually including that code behind that package in your code. For instance, say that package is taken down, and people cannot access that specific package anymore. The new package, distributed under the MIT license, will not have pieces of that package included. It might sounds too simplistic but an analogy would be to require every auto dealership to also have a license for wholesale fuel. Althought the cars they distribute run on fuel, they deliver the fuel with the car. That being said, I am just an agronomist so I do not really understand much about all the legal implications of these licenses.