R help - Feb 2011 - Regarding {KernSmooth} - Can a package on CRAN have non GPL copyrights?

Hi all,
I'm not sure who to ask this, so I'm posting this here.

I just ran:
 require(KernSmooth)
And got (I bolded the text):
Loading required package: KernSmooth
KernSmooth 2.23 loaded
*Copyright M. P. Wand 1997-2009*
Warning message:
package 'KernSmooth' was built under R version 2.12.1

What does that mean?

Thanks,
Tal


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AFAIK CRAN does not explicitly require use of a GPL license (though
obviously the license needs to allow at least free access to the
packages and source).

On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Tal Galili <tal.galili at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm not sure who to ask this, so I'm posting this here.
>
> I just ran:
> ?require(KernSmooth)
> And got (I bolded the text):
> Loading required package: KernSmooth
> KernSmooth 2.23 loaded
> *Copyright M. P. Wand 1997-2009*
> Warning message:
> package 'KernSmooth' was built under R version 2.12.1
>
> What does that mean?
Well, I think that is just a warning that it was built under a
different version of R than you are currently running it under.

If memory serves, the current KernSmooth is a port to R by Brian
Ripley; that message suggests the original KernSmooth was copyrighted
by M. P. Wand from 1997 until 2009 (probably the original author in
S?).

Cheers,

Josh
>
> Thanks,
> Tal
>
>
> ----------------Contact
> Details:-------------------------------------------------------
> Contact me: Tal.Galili at gmail.com | ?972-52-7275845
> Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew) |
> www.r-statistics.com (English)
>
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>
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>
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-- 
Joshua Wiley
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http://www.joshuawiley.com/

On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 11:57 AM, Tal Galili <tal.galili at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm not sure who to ask this, so I'm posting this here.
>
> I just ran:
> ?require(KernSmooth)
> And got (I bolded the text):
> Loading required package: KernSmooth
> KernSmooth 2.23 loaded
> *Copyright M. P. Wand 1997-2009*
> Warning message:
> package 'KernSmooth' was built under R version 2.12.1
>
> What does that mean?
There are many licenses used on CRAN, such as BSD, MIT, GPL, LGPL, and
public domain.  There are even some that aren't really open source at
all such as 'akima' and 'SparseM'.  These packages make
additional
restrictions such as that a license is only granted for academic /
non-commercial use.  It's particularly annoying that many other
packages without such restrictions depend on these packages, making it
pretty difficult to ensure license compliance for companies using R.

The fact that the code is Copyright by that author is somewhat
orthogonal to the license he chooses to distribute it under.  See the
LICENSE file.  In this case, it's much more open than GPL -- it is
completely unrestricted / public domain.  After reading the license
for the package you are interested in, you may like to read how those
licenses are interpreted by e.g.

   http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html

             - Murray