Re: r-cran-maptools_0.7.16-1_i386.changes REJECTED (fwd)

[Andreas Tille <tillea@rki.de>]

On Tue, 10 Mar 2009, Roger Bivand wrote:

> The link in maptools/inst/LICENSE is outdated, and has been replaced by:
>
> http://geodacenter.asu.edu/sdata
>
> on CVS.

Thanks.

> The data sets are used in the function examples, and cannot be removed from 
> the package.

Well, if it is concerning *examples* for the use of the code why do
you think they cannot be removed? m Well, examples are important to
learn about the usage of code - but finally they are not really needed
or do I miss something?

> I cannot see any reason to relicense them, since they are data, 
> not code. You'll have to ask Mark to substantiate why anyone might want to 
> have "modification or distribution rights".

Well, that's because of the Debian Social Contract[1].  Ftpmaster just
makes sure that any package is compliant to this and maptools in the
form it is currently provided is not.  This is true as well for data
as well as it is for documentation etc.

> They are for demonstration 
> purposes only, and at least two (sids and columbus) are very widely used for 
> teaching etc., and used as such by other packages too.

But there are also two data sets with free license (fylk-val and
pointZ) right?  Perhaps I'll ask the authors of the restricted licenses
data whether they  might consider changing their license.  It might be
that the author just not thought about this long enough and nobody
asked them about a free license.

> The package is intended to provide a collection of tools for handling maps, 
> so it does need to ship with example files. I personally do not see the need 
> for a Debian binary (or any binary for platforms where users can install from 
> source) of any contributed package, so I'm not sympathetic to Mark's 
> attitude.

Well, the reason for a package is simple: Our users would like to say:
Please install my computer ready to run for epidemiological research.
This is done via a so called metapackage which you can select with
one click or install automatically in large scale installations
using automatex install and upgrade mechanisms. There should be
no need for users to install their R packages including dependencies
themselves - so at least from a Debian Med point of view it is
evident that we need to package all preconditions for CRAN
surveillance and considering this final target: we are not
directly using Maptools - it is used by CRAN Surveillance and
for this specific purpose the examples might be not needed (perhaps,
just correct me if I'm wrong).  For sure there will be users who
are not working in epidemiology why just want to use plain Maptools
and these will be not happy aboit missing examples ...

> A very bad alternative would be to have to download and unzip the 
> shapefiles for every use of the examples, but I'm not in a mood to make any 
> changes other than updating the link.

Well, I neither able nor do I intend to force you to change anything
which is perfectly fine from your point of view (and I can really
understand that my request is basically void for you).  So I try
to find a reasonable solution for my purpose and will keep you informed
if you like.

Kind regards

       Andreas.


[1] http://www.debian.org/social_contract
[2] http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/epi.html
--
http://fam-tille.de