Re: [tor-talk] "Tor Browsers" on SourceForge

[Ben Tasker <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> - create competing "projects" on sourceforge - open a new account
> "torproject.org" and upload at least one TorBrowser binary - perhaps a
> stub which points the user to the official web page

Beware of SourceForge's recent behaviour (though they've promised not to do
it without consent again) -
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/28/sourceforge_accused_of_shackling_gimp_in_kinky_adware/
- if something goes up on SF it needs to be maintained to avoid being
considered abandoned, and in the case of a few projects, wrapped in Adware
by Sourceforge themselves.

It's also potentially tricky getting projects removed once they're there -
http://sourceforge.net/p/easyhtml5/tracinst/Removing%20a%20project/

If it was me, I'd create an official page, with no releases on it, but a
link to the correct location to get Tor from, Sourceforge is not what it
once was...



On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 11:40 AM, Zenaan Harkness <zen@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 6/7/15, Griffin Boyce <griffin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) - lists wrote:
> >> Given that there could be sketchy reasons to distribute Tor Browser
> >> unofficially and that Tor it's a copyright of Tor Project, shouldn't
> >> the
> >> Tor Project ask to SourceForge to act to:
> >>
> >> a) Or Remove those project
> >>
> >> b) Or ask to change name and remove any occurrence of "Tor" in the name
> >> of the projects, title, sub descriptions that may lead to misleading
> >> interpretation that "this is tor browser"
> >
> >
> >    Andrew and others have asked for these to be taken down in the past.
> > Most listings are shady and likely contain malware.  I contacted the
> > developer of the first listing last year [1] but he never responded.
> > While SourceForge might not care about malware*, large US-based
> > companies usually care about copyright and trademark violations (which
> > was a solid legal basis for Andrew to request takedown).
> >
> >    I'm not super sure where to go from there though.  This might be a
> > better question for Wendy Seltzer.
>
> Thoughts:
> - contact Bradley Kuhn of the Software Freedom Conservancy
> - contact the Free Software Foundation (USA)
> - create competing "projects" on sourceforge - open a new account
> "torproject.org" and upload at least one TorBrowser binary - perhaps a
> stub which points the user to the official web page
> - write some software to auto-create "projects" on all the commercial
> sites out there, in a single hit, make your code libre licensed of
> course :)
>
> In fact, all existing projects on SourceForge ought (evidently)
> maintain their admin-ship of their existing project pages, just to
> ensure SF does not fuck them over.
>
> Sadly we live in a world of many financial, and other, predators.
>
> Do Not give up control of your SF or GitHub or
> __pick-a-commercial-entity__ project!
>
> If your project gets "mirrored" on one of these types of sites - set
> up your own project just to have an official presence on that site.
>
> This is a sad form of "digital thuggery" which ultimately may need a
> legislative fix - in the meantime, the consequence is more work for us
> (but hopefully minimal) who admin projects.
>
> Good luck,
> Zenaan
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-- 
Ben Tasker
https://www.bentasker.co.uk
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