General Terms of Use

[shikokuchuo]

Closes r-multiverse/help#82.

Designed to apply to all Users, protecting Admins / Moderators / Contributors (collectively the 'Contributors').

The legal jurisdiction is still in [ ]s. I am comfortable with using the law of England and Wales as it operates under a case law system with ample (commercial) precedent, hence predictability. But I'd be open to researching the implications of using US law etc. if that is to be preferred.

Comments welcome.

[maelle]

thank you!

[shikokuchuo]

@wlandau the proposed legal jurisdiction is that of England and Wales. This is generally fine for similar contractual documents where operations are global. Please let us know if this is an issue for you.

[wlandau]

Great start, @shikokuchuo!

As you may have noticed, my comments borrow a lot from https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service.

This Terms of Use document seems to cover "Users" as defined at https://r-multiverse.org/governance.html#user. I think we will somehow want to cover Contributors and potentially package maintainers as well. https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/acceptable-use-policies has a lot of great stuff, and it covers some of the scariest failure modes. I'm thinking we could consider subsuming all that stuff under "Terms of Use" and potentially even supersede our current code of conduct.

[shikokuchuo]

@wlandau do take a look at the changes I've made. Can iterate further if you have other comments.
Also are you happy to take [England and Wales] law out of square brackets?

[wlandau]

Also are you happy to take [England and Wales] law out of square brackets?

That's fine.

@wlandau do take a look at the changes I've made. Can iterate further if you have other comments.

Thanks for the changes.

From #25 (comment), there is a lot to cover under an Acceptable Use document. However, for that to work, I think these Terms needs to make responsibility and ownership clear. I like these paragraphs from GitHub's Terms of Service:

C. Acceptable Use

Your use of the Website and Service must not violate any applicable laws, including copyright or trademark laws, export control or sanctions laws, or other laws in your jurisdiction. You are responsible for making sure that your use of the Service is in compliance with laws and any applicable regulations.

D. User-Generated Content

1. Responsibility for User-Generated Content

You are solely responsible for the content of, and for any harm resulting from, any User-Generated Content that you post, upload, link to or otherwise make available via the Service, regardless of the form of that Content. We are not responsible for any public display or misuse of your User-Generated Content.

[shikokuchuo]

I've taken the jurisdiction out of [ ]s.

The wording of C is already incorporated into this document (lines 38-39, which are specific examples of a broader catch-all in line 35). As for D, this is applicable for GitHub, but for us the users are not uploading their own content - rather this will be covered for contributors in the Acceptable Use Policy.

[shikokuchuo]

The Acceptable Use Policy is now drafted so these should be read in conjunction with each other.

Due to timing, this document will go into effect before that one - but let me know if anyone has any further comments.

[wlandau]

I like the added definitions. I would add a couple more. GitHub's terms of service defines the audience:

“The User,” “You,” and “Your” refer to the individual person, company, or organization that has visited or is using the Website or Service; that accesses or uses any part of the Account; or that directs the use of the Account in the performance of its functions. A User must be at least 13 years of age. Special terms may apply for business or government Accounts (See Section B(5): Additional Terms).

It would be also good to define "package". We mean it in terms of "R package" as defined in https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-exts.html.

After those changes, I am fine to merge this.

[wlandau]

Another thing, actually: we will have "Terms of Use" and "Acceptable Use", which sound similar because of the word "Use". Maybe this one can be "Terms of Service" and define "Service" in the definitions section?

[shikokuchuo]

I like the added definitions. I would add a couple more. GitHub's terms of service defines the audience:

“The User,” “You,” and “Your” refer to the individual person, company, or organization that has visited or is using the Website or Service; that accesses or uses any part of the Account; or that directs the use of the Account in the performance of its functions. A User must be at least 13 years of age. Special terms may apply for business or government Accounts (See Section B(5): Additional Terms).

I've added a definition for "you" and "your" that works for us.

It would be also good to define "package". We mean it in terms of "R package" as defined in https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-exts.html.

I think the term is unambiguous in the context of a repository. I do not want to define it too narrowly here, as in any case we tend to use "packages and services" together.

After those changes, I am fine to merge this.

Let me know if you're ok with the above.

[shikokuchuo]

Another thing, actually: we will have "Terms of Use" and "Acceptable Use", which sound similar because of the word "Use". Maybe this one can be "Terms of Service" and define "Service" in the definitions section?

Terms of Use is probably more accurate as Term of Service is more geared towards sites with user accounts that are providing a service. For us, it's mostly people using the repository to download packages.

[wlandau]

For us, it's mostly people using the repository to download packages.

Would that not count as a service?

If you like "Terms of Use", what about "Acceptable Contribution" for the other one?

[wlandau]

I've added a definition for "you" and "your" that works for us.

Thanks. I also like the list format you use.

I think the term is unambiguous in the context of a repository. I do not want to define it too narrowly here, as in any case we tend to use "packages and services" together.

Would this be broad enough?

* Service: any capability that R-multiverse provides for you, including but not limited to the ability to download and install packages.
* Package: a collection of code or software, including but not limited to an R extension as described at https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-exts.html.

[wlandau]

If you like "Terms of Use", what about "Acceptable Contribution" for the other one?

On second thought, "Terms of Service" is narrower than "Terms of Use" because the latter covers more than just services. Likewise, "Use" is more general than "Contribution". So I am fine with the current names.

[shikokuchuo]

Would this be broad enough?

* Service: any capability that R-multiverse provides for you, including but not limited to the ability to download and install packages.
* Package: a collection of code or software, including but not limited to an R extension as described at https://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-exts.html.

Please see 4affc31 where I've added definitions along those lines. The one for package must be self-contained otherwise it incorporates the linked document by reference and that's never a good idea.

Please double-check where I've capitalised all mentions of "Package" and "Services" that you think the definition is fine in each respect. Thanks.

[shikokuchuo]

Added a correction in 8f4ca7e - you see how easy it is to get something wrong!