[Qgis-developer] Plugin repo: status

[Alessandro Pasotti]

2015-01-20 14:25 GMT+01:00 Matthias Kuhn <matthias at opengis.ch>:
> Hi,
>
> I don't think it is possible for us to set up the structures to prevent
> this from happening.
> Once we gain knowledge of such a situation, I think that we are obliged
> to remove these from the repository as we cannot promote TOS conflicts
> as a project.
>
> There would of course still be an option to have
>  * somebody set up a private repository providing the problematic plugins
>  * deliver the plugins without problematic services (e.g. google)
> configured and give information to the user about how he can add these
> manually.
>
> These two options would take the QGIS project out of the line and hand
> the responsibility to the user.
>
> We could still introduce a "legal note" like proposed by Werner and add
> a "if you spot a legal problem with this plugin please send a note to
> the plugin author and the repository manager.".
>
> Matthias
>


I'm not a layer, but if we have a legal problem, then the following
websites have the same problem (just an example):

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/geopy
https://github.com/geopy/geopy
https://packages.debian.org/unstable/main/python-geopy

To break the TOS it's enough to run the following (or a similar) command:

$ GET 'https://www.google.it/maps/vt/pb=!1m5!1m4!1i6!2i67!3i46!4i128!2m1!1e1!3m9!2sit!3sit!5e1105!12m1!1e4!12m1!1e47!12m1!1e3!4e0'

Additionally, a common internet browser such as firefox or chrome is
capable to download a single tile and this will break Google TOS.

I might be wrong but I don't feel that publishing a tool which is
theoretically capable to break the TOS is like effectively doing it.

-- 
Alessandro Pasotti
w3:   www.itopen.it