[R-pkg-devel] Pkgs with ToS violations

[Barry Rowlingson]

ROpenSci's onboarding process has a checkbox for confirming that the
package "does not violate the Terms of Service of any service it
interacts with.":

https://github.com/ropensci/onboarding/blob/master/issue_template.md

I also have a vague memory of this discussion a few years ago on
R-help/-dev where TPTB on CRAN decided that they were just providing
hammers, and if people wanted to break into houses with them then that
wasn't their problem (I'm paraphrasing and vague on the details...).
Can't find that thread right now.




On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 11:23 AM, Duncan Murdoch
<murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel