[aur-general] Abandonware in the AUR
We have a discussion on the forums [1] about Arch's policy towards what packages can be provided in the AUR with the focus on abandonware. User megadriver found a couple packages [2] that provide a means of downloading games for free (as in beer) even though those games can be bought. Apps can go in and out of the abandonware status as their availability changes: now you can buy them, now you can't. Do we care about this or is it up to the user to check if the stuff he installs is legal? Should we set up a bot to scan for potential 'warez' stuff? [1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=128832 [2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1008451#p1008451
Yeah, I am the one who started that discussion on the forums. My main goal was to ask that the TUs add a direct rule to forbid any kind of warez.Since abandonware is a bit gray area and is easy to make a mistake (thinking something is "abandoned" when actually is NOT), well, I think such rule should forbid abandonware. IF for several reasons, is considered abandonware is ok. well, then a rule which specify what exactly is "abandonware", like "the company should not exist anymore", etc. When I created that post, I wasn't plannig to actually report a package... but seeing there is doom2 on aur, well, for the moral reasons I explain there (id software have always supported linux and FOSS) yeah. I want to ask for deletion the package https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33036 and I think a rule would be useful. thanks
On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 9:19 PM, <chrislcenter-mamoru@yahoo.com.mx> wrote:
I want to ask for deletion the package https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=33036 and I think a rule would be useful. thanks
I think you should send a separate mail with the deletion request.
On 10/27/2011 08:33 PM, Karol Blazewicz wrote:
We have a discussion on the forums [1] about Arch's policy towards what packages can be provided in the AUR with the focus on abandonware. User megadriver found a couple packages [2] that provide a means of downloading games for free (as in beer) even though those games can be bought.
Apps can go in and out of the abandonware status as their availability changes: now you can buy them, now you can't. Do we care about this or is it up to the user to check if the stuff he installs is legal? Should we set up a bot to scan for potential 'warez' stuff?
[1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=128832 [2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1008451#p1008451
imo a download link shouldn't be provided. in sources array just add the file name after download, just like a patch and the users can copy them self the downloaded file in the same directory with PKGBUILD -- Ionuț
* Ionut Biru <ibiru@archlinux.org> [27.10.2011 21:31]:
On 10/27/2011 08:33 PM, Karol Blazewicz wrote:
We have a discussion on the forums [1] about Arch's policy towards what packages can be provided in the AUR with the focus on abandonware. User megadriver found a couple packages [2] that provide a means of downloading games for free (as in beer) even though those games can be bought.
Apps can go in and out of the abandonware status as their availability changes: now you can buy them, now you can't. Do we care about this or is it up to the user to check if the stuff he installs is legal? Should we set up a bot to scan for potential 'warez' stuff?
[1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=128832 [2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1008451#p1008451
imo a download link shouldn't be provided. in sources array just add the file name after download, just like a patch and the users can copy them self the downloaded file in the same directory with PKGBUILD
-- Ionuț
+1, just wanted to write the same. This was done e.g. with ardour-vst, which needs the vst sdk archive in the $startdir. No link was provided, but a message, where the file can be downloaded (iirc). That way no laws are broken.
On 27 October 2011 21:30, Ionut Biru <ibiru@archlinux.org> wrote:
On 10/27/2011 08:33 PM, Karol Blazewicz wrote:
We have a discussion on the forums [1] about Arch's policy towards what packages can be provided in the AUR with the focus on abandonware. User megadriver found a couple packages [2] that provide a means of downloading games for free (as in beer) even though those games can be bought.
Apps can go in and out of the abandonware status as their availability changes: now you can buy them, now you can't. Do we care about this or is it up to the user to check if the stuff he installs is legal? Should we set up a bot to scan for potential 'warez' stuff?
[1] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=128832 [2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1008451#p1008451
imo a download link shouldn't be provided. in sources array just add the file name after download, just like a patch and the users can copy them self the downloaded file in the same directory with PKGBUILD
-- Ionuț
+1. It's a common way in other commercial game packages (eg. worldofgoo) and packages where the download of files is not possible for some reason (eg. requires registration, it's not free, …). Besides some people may have the original files and removing such packages would force them to reinvent the wheel. Lukas
participants (5)
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chrislcenter-mamoru@yahoo.com.mx
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Ionut Biru
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Karol Blazewicz
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Lukáš Jirkovský
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Uli Armbruster