R help - Dec 2011 - R Source Code Request Office For National Statistics UK

To R Support Team,

ONS would like a restricted number of its IT staff to view the source code 
for the latest version of your software, to check it against our source 
code security guidelines.The source code will be securely stored with 
access limited.

ONS is quite happy to agree that we would not 
- copy or change your source code without your agreement
- share the source code with anyone outside ONS
- communicate the knowledge we acquire to anyone outside of ONS
- infringe your intellectual property rights in any way.

If there are any other conditions you would like to apply we are very 
happy to discuss them.

Could you please let me know if ONS would be allowed to view your 
software's source code?

I would appreciate if you could reply at your earliest convenience.

Regards,
David Samuel

ONS
Segensworth Road
Titchfield
PO15 5RR
UK
(+44) 01329 444663
David.samuel@ONS.GSI.GOV.UK
For the latest data on the economy and society consult National Statistics at
http://www.ons.gov.uk

*********************************************************************************


Please Note:  Incoming and outgoing email messages are routinely monitored for
compliance with our policy on the use of electronic communications
*********************************************************************************


Legal Disclaimer  :  Any views expressed by the sender of this message are not
necessarily those of the Office for National Statistics
*********************************************************************************



The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure
Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless Worldwide in
partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2009/09/0052.) On leaving
the GSi this email was certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

There are no restrictions needed. Any of your staff can view the  
(open) source code just as any other member of the human race with  
access to to an Interenet connection may do so.

The released version:
http://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-2/R-2.14.0.tar.gz

The development version:
ftp://ftp.stat.math.ethz.ch/Software/R/

-- 
David, member of the human race and the all-volunteer, trans-national  
"R Support Team".


On Dec 21, 2011, at 8:06 AM, David Samuel wrote:
> To R Support Team,
>
> ONS would like a restricted number of its IT staff to view the  
> source code
> for the latest version of your software, to check it against our  
> source
> code security guidelines.The source code will be securely stored with
> access limited.
>
> ONS is quite happy to agree that we would not
> - copy or change your source code without your agreement
> - share the source code with anyone outside ONS
> - communicate the knowledge we acquire to anyone outside of ONS
> - infringe your intellectual property rights in any way.
>
> If there are any other conditions you would like to apply we are very
> happy to discuss them.
>
> Could you please let me know if ONS would be allowed to view your
> software's source code?
>
> I would appreciate if you could reply at your earliest convenience.
>
> Regards,
> David Samuel
>
> ONS
> Segensworth Road
> Titchfield
> PO15 5RR
> UK
> (+44) 01329 444663
> David.samuel at ONS.GSI.GOV.UK
> For the latest data on the economy and society consult National  
> Statistics at http://www.ons.gov.uk
>
>
*********************************************************************************
>
>
> Please Note:  Incoming and outgoing email messages are routinely  
> monitored for compliance with our policy on the use of electronic  
> communications
>
*********************************************************************************
>
>
> Legal Disclaimer  :  Any views expressed by the sender of this  
> message are not necessarily those of the Office for National  
> Statistics
>
*********************************************************************************
>
>
>
> The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government  
> Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless  
> Worldwide in partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number  
> 2009/09/0052.) On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
> Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored  
> and/or recorded for legal purposes.
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT

On Dec 21, 2011, at 7:06 AM, David Samuel wrote:
> To R Support Team,
> 
> ONS would like a restricted number of its IT staff to view the source code 
> for the latest version of your software, to check it against our source 
> code security guidelines.The source code will be securely stored with 
> access limited.
> 
> ONS is quite happy to agree that we would not 
> - copy or change your source code without your agreement
> - share the source code with anyone outside ONS
> - communicate the knowledge we acquire to anyone outside of ONS
> - infringe your intellectual property rights in any way.
> 
> If there are any other conditions you would like to apply we are very 
> happy to discuss them.
> 
> Could you please let me know if ONS would be allowed to view your 
> software's source code?
> 
> I would appreciate if you could reply at your earliest convenience.
> 
> Regards,
> David Samuel

David,

R is open source software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software),
so there is no need to restrict access to the source code, unlike with
proprietary applications (eg. SAS). Anyone can download and view it.

The latest stable release version of the code is available in a tarball at:

  http://cran.r-project.org/

under the "Source Code for all Platforms" section.

Enjoy.

Marc Schwartz

On 21.12.2011 14:25, David Winsemius wrote:
> There are no restrictions needed. Any of your staff can view the (open)
> source code just as any other member of the human race
I do not think the GPL excludes other species ...

 > with access to to
> an Interenet connection may do so.
Oh, you may get it printed or on some data storage medium from someone 
else (although the former would really be a waste of paper in the end).

Best,
Uwe

> The released version:
> http://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-2/R-2.14.0.tar.gz
>
> The development version:
> ftp://ftp.stat.math.ethz.ch/Software/R/
>

Em 21/12/2011 11:22, Uwe Ligges escreveu:
>
>
> On 21.12.2011 14:25, David Winsemius wrote:
>> There are no restrictions needed. Any of your staff can view the (open)
>> source code just as any other member of the human race
>
> I do not think the GPL excludes other species ...
>
Since the null hypothesis is that only the human race is able to read 
the content. . .

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 1:06 PM, David Samuel
<david.samuel at ons.gsi.gov.uk> wrote:
> To R Support Team,
> Could you please let me know if ONS would be allowed to view your
> software's source code?
 If proof was ever needed that people don't read software license
agreements, this is it.

 Is there a license that forces you to read the source code before
using the software? I'd license my stuff under that:

THE BAZ PUBLIC LICENSE (hereinafter the BPL)

Under the terms of the BPL you MUST first read all source code and get
a pretty good understanding of what it all does before using THE
SOFTWARE. You MUST report bugs or problems to THE AUTHOR but you MUST
NOT expect them to be fixed. You MUST fix them YOURSELF if you think
you may be technically capable or if YOU think YOU are a better
programmer than THE AUTHOR. Otherwise YOU must SHUT UP.


Barry (hereinbefore Baz)