[R-pkg-devel] Pkgs with ToS violations

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 03/08/2016 10:26 PM, Bob Rudis wrote:
> I came across https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/boxoffice/index.html
> in CRAN today and while I don't expect CRAN to be a legal authority,
> should there not be some kind of policy for excluding R packages that
> deliberately violate (data) site ToS? (I'm asking this here vs sending
> a note to CRAN folks since I tend to be a bit sensitive to this
> particular issue).
>
> Box Office Mojo - which is really just Amazon - clearly states that
> the activities this package facilitates are in violation of their ToS.
> Unlike examples on blogs that also violate BOM ToS, this pkg in CRAN
> is almost legitimizing the violations.
>
> Amazon only goes after a few folks a year and it's unlikely R folks
> will be their target (for now) but that doesn't make it OK IMO.
>
> Is this worth bringing up to CRAN?

I'd say the place to start is the package maintainer.  The maintainer 
has certified that the package satisfies the policy "The code and 
examples provided in a package should never do anything which might be 
regarded as malicious or anti-social.".

Duncan Murdoch