[aur-general] Abandonware in the AUR

[Lukáš Jirkovský]

On 27 October 2011 21:30, Ionut Biru <ibiru at 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