Hi all, I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday who was griping about how he's stuck with GeneSpring and how he wishes he could learn R in a reasonable amount of time, and he showed me his Genespring layout on his computer... GeneSpring now apparently can call R functions from the command line on a windows PC (GeneSpring apparently isn't very stable on anything else...LOL). I think I saw one to do an RMA norm of CEL files, and I'm not sure what else, but what I'm wondering is whether or not this is actually legal? If I'm a software developer, can I just go ahead and write a little GUI on top of R and sell it?? This seems like outright thievery to me. It's probably safe to say that most of the algorithms in GeneSpring are probably ripped straight from open source software, repackaged in a pretty GUI, and resold, but it seems that this is a little bit over the line... just my .02 What do you think?

Sure, you can write a little GUI on top of R and sell it. As long as you obey any/all licenses stuck on to the components, some of which require you to provide both the source and the right for the buyer to have the same rights as you had. On 5/18/05, Ken Termiso <jerk_alert@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday who was griping about how > he's stuck with GeneSpring and how he wishes he could learn R in a > reasonable amount of time, and he showed me his Genespring layout on his > computer... > > GeneSpring now apparently can call R functions from the command line on a > windows PC (GeneSpring apparently isn't very stable on anything else...LOL). > I think I saw one to do an RMA norm of CEL files, and I'm not sure what > else, but what I'm wondering is whether or not this is actually legal? If > I'm a software developer, can I just go ahead and write a little GUI on top > of R and sell it?? This seems like outright thievery to me. > > It's probably safe to say that most of the algorithms in GeneSpring are > probably ripped straight from open source software, repackaged in a pretty > GUI, and resold, but it seems that this is a little bit over the line... > > just my .02 > > What do you think? > > _______________________________________________ > Bioconductor mailing list > Bioconductor@stat.math.ethz.ch > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor > -- best, -tony "Commit early,commit often, and commit in a repository from which we can easily roll-back your mistakes" (AJR, 4Jan05). A.J. Rossini blindglobe@gmail.com

Dear Ken, On Wednesday 18 May 2005 20:01, Ken Termiso wrote: > Hi all, > > I was chatting with a friend of mine yesterday who was griping about how > he's stuck with GeneSpring and how he wishes he could learn R in a > reasonable amount of time, and he showed me his Genespring layout on his > computer... > > GeneSpring now apparently can call R functions from the command line on a > windows PC (GeneSpring apparently isn't very stable on anything > else...LOL). I think I saw one to do an RMA norm of CEL files, and I'm not > sure what else, but what I'm wondering is whether or not this is actually > legal? If I'm a software developer, can I just go ahead and write a little > GUI on top of R and sell it?? This seems like outright thievery to me. I don't think this, by itself, is a case of writing a GUI on top of R and selling it (which might not violate the terms of the license(s) for R depending on what you distribute, etc; see Tony Rossini's answer). My understanding is that GeneSpring provides the possibility of calling R and thus the code you (or anyone else) writes. This functionality, as far as I understand, is provided in part by the GeneSpring package, which is part of BioC, and is under the GPL. What they do, according to their docs (http://www.silicongenetics.com/Downloads/gs_r_doc.pdf) is "(...) start an external program and provide this program with the data to be analyzed. When the program is finished with its analysis, the results will be passed back to GeneSpring, which will present the user with the results in the familiar GeneSpring Interface." Now, in the context of your friend's situation, I think that he might want to ponder whether he just wants to learn to use R within GeneSpring or learn to use R; he'll need a fully functional R installation anyway. And then, if he starts writing code that could be used by others, he might want to consider whether he wants to pack/make available that code so that it can be used by others regardless of whether or not they use GeneSpring. Best, R. > It's probably safe to say that most of the algorithms in GeneSpring are > probably ripped straight from open source software, repackaged in a pretty > GUI, and resold, but it seems that this is a little bit over the line... > > just my .02 > > What do you think? > > _______________________________________________ > Bioconductor mailing list > Bioconductor@stat.math.ethz.ch > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioconductor -- Ram?n D?az-Uriarte Bioinformatics Unit Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncol?gicas (CNIO) (Spanish National Cancer Center) Melchor Fern?ndez Almagro, 3 28029 Madrid (Spain) Fax: +-34-91-224-6972 Phone: +-34-91-224-6900 http://ligarto.org/rdiaz PGP KeyID: 0xE89B3462 (http://ligarto.org/rdiaz/0xE89B3462.asc) **NOTA DE CONFIDENCIALIDAD** Este correo electr?nico, y en s...{{dropped}}