Release new bare-bones web repo / mirror

[sswam]

It seems you wanted me to ask for permission. Can I have permission to link directly to your PNDs?


My site will be more useful if people can update any PND with it.

At last. Yes, you have my permission to host those PNDs.

Okay... this is good!


So now I moved ZXDunny's PNDs back into the regular /pnd folder here and made them readable.


I needed to quote and explain this so that other people don't complain about these PNDs still being there.


Hopefully that is now okay with everyone. If not, please send me a PM or sam@pandoria.org.


Apparently the moral lesson is that I should write to each and every PND maintainer and ask for permission to host their PND on my mirror repo.


Ok, I will do that.


It would be rude to use a form letter, so I am going to write to every maintainer personally, even the free software ones, just in case they do not understand what their software licenses mean. There goes my weekend. At least I might make some sorely needed friends.


* Sam out

 

[pmprog]

To save you a bit of time, you're okay to host my 4 PNDs (CyRacer3D, Alarm Clock, KeePassX, and GoatTracker)

 

[diligentcircle]

There's no reason to ask if it's free software. Free licenses such as the GNU GPL already grant you permission to redistribute copies of the program. Personally, I would be annoyed if someone asked me permission to do what the license says you can do with one of my programs (though, for selfish reasons, I wouldn't be rude in answering).

 

[Binky]

There's no reason to ask if it's free software.

Given the grumpy devs earlier on in the topic, I'd say there was.


I might make sense to notify authors of free software and say that you are willing to remove it, rather than asking for permision to distribute it.


Anyhow, it doesn't do much harm...

 

[bismuthdrummer]

Apparently the moral lesson is that I should write to each and every PND maintainer and ask for permission to host their PND on my mirror repo.

Not exactly, the lesson is that it is better to ask permission than to ask forgiveness, even though the converse is temptingly easier.


Sorry if my argument style comes off as hating, but I really think you should slow down and read up on this stuff a bit more. Just my opinion of course.


Glad to see you are flexible anyways.

 

[sswam]

Yeah maybe I should have asked my wife for permission to stay late at "work" fucking around with all this nonsense. Ah well.

 

[TrashyMG]

Honestly don't mind mirrored copies of the PNDs I pushed up as everything I pushed up is some flavor GPL..


However I can understand the feeling of the other "real" developers here.

 

[skeezix]

Don't be so indignant BSD and Linux and other open source or free OSes are very license careful, for good reason; you may want to check history and count the lawsuits that flew arond over BSD Lite and so on through peopel seeing Google for Linux sources and so on -- the license and history trail is more important to open source people than others; it may seem counter useful, but the whole open source movement exists due to careful licensing. We very carefulyl say what you can do (including copying, etc), not make assumptions, which just get you in hot water.


So, yeah, this is why theres _always_ a big flamefest over this sort of thing, in every forum in the world


jeff


Personally, I think a file mirror is okay .. geographical diversity is good But it does lead to complexity, since I believe in authoring rights. A good point has been raised though.. the uathors may want it one way, but the legals may be another. Still, should always strive for the most legal and least douchey way of operaing.. but it is an interesting argument.


As someone whose sold software, I always had to authorize each reseller; in the case of someone who sells, and then just uses another store to fulfill, thats okay, none of the authorsd business really (though some content authors authorize each visible outlet, for brand control too.) The repackaging question is the big one though.. thats very itchy ground..

 

[sswam]

in the case of someone who sells, and then just uses another store to fulfill, thats okay, none of the authors business really

That is what I am doing, I think it's called "drop shipping"?


I do try to add a little value for my many customers, with my cheery demeanour and what not.

 

[ZXDunny]

I have no problem with my other app, as it's GPL. The two games are not. I'll add a note to please ask permission to host them in the future. The real issue for me though is that Dredd's repo-mirror doesn't have any commenting system, and users that download from there can't see any comments or texts I've added (for resolving control issues, say).


D.

 

[graupelschauer]

I don't know how PNDManager and PNDStore handles this - can someone test that they are still working fine?

It will certainly break them. Could you please disable this .htaccess, since I am not going to hotlink to the repo any more?

It shouldn't.


Thanks for not hotlinking anymore, but it might be others would do this, so I'd rather keep it like that

I'm suppressing the referrer in my browser and I cannot download anything from the repo anymore. I guess it has something to do with this change?

 

[zLouD]

I'm suppressing the referrer in my browser and I cannot download anything from the repo anymore. I guess it has something to do with this change?

Yes, you have to send

http://repo.openpandora.org

as referer in order to download.


If you do so, hotlinking is not a problem. (Pandora Clock in this example)

 

[skeezix]

DREDD .. you're updating your mirror in a timely fashion I presume? ie: So if repo blows up one day, your mirror will be within a few days of current?


jeff

 

[EvilDragon]

I don't know how PNDManager and PNDStore handles this - can someone test that they are still working fine?

It will certainly break them. Could you please disable this .htaccess, since I am not going to hotlink to the repo any more?

It shouldn't.


Thanks for not hotlinking anymore, but it might be others would do this, so I'd rather keep it like that

I'm suppressing the referrer in my browser and I cannot download anything from the repo anymore. I guess it has something to do with this change?

Probably, I'll try to fix that.

 

[PokeParadox]

Dredd, now I give you permission to mirror my PNDs which are on the repo(Most are GPL or similar anyway).


Hopefully we can move on from this drama and you can continue to improve your repo with the backing of the community and commercial devs.

 

[_wb_]

Just copy/pasting some irc discussion related to this little flamewar:


21:40 < _wb_> and I would add a tickbox to the upload form to declare if you're OK with redistribution or not


21:41 < _wb_> and allow mirroring for all uploads, with the condition that the mirrors are auto-synced to the central repo


21:41 < milkshake_> _wb_, that sounds pretty reasonable


21:42 < milkshake_> _wb_, I might hack that in over the next week


21:42 < milkshake_> that way devs can decide themselfs and it can be added to the repo JSON I guess


So we would have a "Free" and "Nonfree" section on the forum; they can both be mirrored if the mirrors are going to kept automatically synced (some mechanism for this still needs to be implemented, but I think we all agree that it's better in terms of network topology and disaster safety to have more than one physical repo server), but only the "Free" section can be freely redistributed. To classify the existing PNDs it's probably best to assume everything is nonfree unless the license specifically says it's Free (e.g. GPL, MIT, etc.). Some caution is needed in this respect since some people consider "Freeware" to mean redistribution is not allowed.


This classification would also make it easier for purists to only use Free software. After the above forum drama this is actually something I'm considering

 

[Pickle]

Giana's Return is freeware and should not be sold, regardless if you think your a good cause you collected a 'donation' for it. Plus it still has the copyrighted material, which I asked VVVVVV to be removed.


Based on this page. http://pandoria.org/buy/


Looks like your trying to do the same thing with gog titles with all the scummvm nonsense.


Based on this page: http://blah.pandoria.org/sss/


Are you planning to be held responsible for any damages for your hosted software?


Only concern I have with the mirroring is the state of the pnd's and if they are maintained and updated. That was one problem with the app store.


Really the best solution is to provide tools to enable the use to setup pnd's for the pandora. For instance say i have a gog game installed in the default location, the script could copy the needed data to the specified location. But then again giving the use a list of files or a directory and there good.


Something like this would be good for a title like gemrb and the baldurs gate which ive read is tricky to setup.

 

[PokeParadox]

I just have to ask what is that "aaa" pack about... :S


Is the plan to pass donations on to the respective devs, to OP or are you really letting people donate to you for a pack of other peoples' work...?

 

[foxblock]

I just have to ask what is that "aaa" pack about... :S


Is the plan to pass donations on to the respective devs, to OP or are you really letting people donate to you for a pack of other peoples' work...?

That's quite old and related the platformer competition, there is a dedicated thread about that from back then on this forum (and probably some posts on the main competition thread, too).


I am surprised it's still online. I still find it kinda "meh".

 

[sebt3]

@Poke : remember : he havent sell anything