Bug#1004314: admisc has unclear license

Hello Andreas,

I learned this the hardway, with a former co-author from another package of mine wanting to forcely take over the package by questioning absolutely everything in the package, from code to documentation.

After many iterations with the CRAN maintainers, I learned that the GPL licence from the DESCRIPTION file is only about the package as a whole and it mostly covers the documentation. As counter-intuitive as it seems, it looks like it does *not* cover the actual code inside the package. I was specifically made aware about this because I then wrote "I do have previous versions of the package before my co-author joined, and prove the code is mine to protect its IP" and they replied that unless I specifically mention a copyright statement (other than the package's in DESCRIPTION) the code is completely unprotected.

This is the story behind that statement in the R file, I chose one that is as open as possible (it basically allows everyone to use my code, with a simple retention of the copyright notice.

Now, about your specific situation. Do please make me understand, what is the exact problem under Debian? Do they not allow such copyright statements?

Best,

Adrian

On Fri, 18 Feb 2022 at 14:42, Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu> wrote:

Hi Adrian,

I intend to package amisc for Debian.

Inside the DESCRIPTION file of admisc I find:

License: GPL (>= 3)

but according to the file headers, the license of this software is not GPL
but BSD-3-clause:

$ head -n24 R/asNumeric.R
# Copyright (c) 2019 - 2022, Adrian Dusa
# All rights reserved.
#
# Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
# modification, in whole or in part, are permitted provided that the
# following conditions are met:
# * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
# notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
# * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
# notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
# documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
# * The names of its contributors may NOT be used to endorse or promote products
# derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
#
# THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
# ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
# WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
# DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL ADRIAN DUSA BE LIABLE FOR ANY
# DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
# (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
# LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
# ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
# (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
# SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Could you please bring the license statements in sync?

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