As noticed by Jason Tibbitts on June 6, 2009, the license is a bit unclear. DESCRIPTION states "GPL-2", but src/pijt.c, the only other file which seems to have a license, uses the FSF-recommended language and states GPLv2+. That needed to be clarified with upstream. The maintainer, namely Denis Arnaud , therefore sent an email to the (R-)msm project owner, namely Chris Jackson , to clarify that license issue. Following is a copy of the corresponding emails, including the answer from the project owner: the license was intended to be GPLv2+. ============================================================================== Subject: Re: License of (R-)msm - Packaging for Fedora/RedHat Date: Fri 5 Jun 2009 6:22pm From: "Chris Jackson" "Denis Arnaud" wrote: > Hello Chris, > > First of all, thank you very much for your nice work on R-based software! > Also, I would like to package your R software, namely MSM (Multi-State > Markov), for Fedora and RedHat (RPM packages): > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=498845 > > A question arises: "The license is a bit unclear. DESCRIPTION says "GPL-2", > but src/pijt.c (the only other file that seems to have a license) uses the > FSF-recommended language and says GPLv2+." > > So, is the license GPL-v2 strictly, or should it be GPLv2+ ("GPL-v2 and > later")? And would you be so kind as to alter accordingly the DESCRIPTION > and/or src/pijt.c files? Dear Denis, Thanks for pointing that out, it was an oversight. I will alter the DESCRIPTION file to put the whole package under GPL version 2 or later. I am working on several updates and bug fixes at the moment, so I intend to release the next version with this change within the next two weeks. Thanks for packaging it - it has also recently been included in Debian! Chris -- Christopher Jackson Research Statistician, MRC Biostatistics Unit, Institute of Public Health, Robinson Way, Cambridge, UK, CB2 0SR. +44 (1223) 330381 ============================================================================== Note: when the license statement will be clarified upstream, that README file will be removed from the (R-msm) RPM package.