Bug#752876: Comments regarding r-cran-spdep_0.5-92-1_amd64.changes

[Andreas Tille]

Hi Thorsten,

would it be acceptable if I add this text to d/copyright?

Kind regards

      Andreas.


On Mon, Apr 04, 2016 at 06:52:24PM +0200, Roger Bivand wrote:
> Hi Andreas,
> 
> I have added:
> 
> /*
> This code is described in "Computational Geometry in C" (Second Edition),
> Chapter 8.  It is not written to be comprehensible without the
> explanation in that book.
> 
> Prints out one arm configuration to reach given target.
> Assumes number of links >= 3.
> Input:
>    nlinks           Number of links
>    L1 L2 ... Ln     Link lengths
>    x0 y0            target0
>    x1 x2            target1
>    ...
> 
> Written by Joseph O'Rourke.
> Last modified: December 1997
> Questions to orourke at cs.smith.edu.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> This code is Copyright 1998 by Joseph O'Rourke.  It may be freely
> redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is
> not removed.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> */
> 
> to spdep/src/soigraph.c (committed to R-forge, will be released when the
> next release occurs). This is the comment at the top of arm.c from:
> 
> http://cs.smith.edu/~orourke/CGCode/SecondEdition/Ccode2.tar.gz
> 
> which is the author's code distribution site, and is more relevant than the
> printed text of the book. We've used the same approach in sp/src/pip.c for
> over ten years without attracting Debian's ire.
> 
> Nicholas and I understood in 2001 that ... may be freely redistributed ...
> could reasonably be taken as permission to include and redistribute these
> small functions.
> 
> Do you want me to revisit the separate packaging of data sets?
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Roger
> 
> On Mon, 4 Apr 2016, Andreas Tille wrote:
> 
> >Hi Roger,
> >
> >I hope you remember the discussion we had two years ago when I tried to
> >package spdep for Debian as a dependency to test some R epipdemiology
> >tools.  I somehow gave up since the packages can be run with out spdep.
> >However, we have now some bioinformatics tools that have a strong
> >dependency and so we need to dive into this again.
> >
> >As you can read below the Debian ftpmaster has reviewed the source code
> >of spdep and found a weak part in the licensing.  If you ask me this
> >issue is also relevant for distributing spdep code on CRAN but nobody
> >has stumbled upon this before.  It would be great if you could clarify
> >the license of these pieces of code or replace it by some alternative
> >free code.
> >
> >Kind regards and thanks for your support
> >
> >     Andreas.
> >
> >On Sun, Apr 03, 2016 at 04:49:37PM +0000, Thorsten Alteholz wrote:
> >>Hi Andreas,
> >>
> >>the issues about src/soigraph.c are not really solved.
> >>
> >>According to the file:
> >>* The subroutines TwoCirclesxx and SubVec are adapted for R and Double
> >>* precision coordinates by Nicholas Lewin-Koh, from Computational
> >>* Geometry in C, Joseph O'Rourke, Cambridge University Press
> >>* (1998), specifically from arm/arm.c. Copyright for those subroutines
> >>*  remains his.
> >>
> >>As you can see, for example on Amazon, this book contains a paragraph:
> >>
> >>This book is in copyright. (...) no reproduction of any part may take
> >>place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
> >>
> >>From my point of view this does not look like that "This code may be
> >>freely redistributed" ...
> >>
> >>  Thorsten
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>debian-science-maintainers mailing list
> >>debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
> >>http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-science-maintainers
> >>
> >
> >
> 
> -- 
> Roger Bivand
> Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics,
> Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway.
> voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 91 00
> e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no
> http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2392-6140
> https://scholar.google.no/citations?user=AWeghB0AAAAJ&hl=en
> http://depsy.org/person/434412
> 

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