[wp-hackers] Plugin Site

[Rich Bowen]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Tor Bjornrud wrote:

> Respectfully, I think having a system that relies on everybody being 
> the sole provider of their "open code" not only defeats the purpose of 
> Open Source, it ends up making a fragile network of available plugins.  
> In no way is it reasonable, in my opinion, to have people committing 
> Open Source changes to a OSS project and expect to act as if it's not.

It is important that people understand the concepts of Open Source in
order for this to be a reasonable conclusion. This is one of the reasons
the Apache Software Foundation had to require people to submit license
agreements, as annoying as this can be.

It's also important to encourage authors to *CLEARLY* state what license
they are releasing their code under, if any. If they are releaseing it
under an open source license, then they are explicitly granting
permission for that code to be redistributed. If they are not clear on
what their license is, then it should not be mirrored.

Having said that, I agree entirely with Tor's thoughts here. See
modules.apache.org and the many ways in which it Doesn't Work. Things
like plugins are very small and very easy to mirror and redistribute.
One must link back to the URL provided by the author, but having a local
copy is the only reasonable way to make the site moderately usable.

All MHO, of course, but based on a modicum of experience and
frustration with similar systems.

-- 
Pilgrim, how you journey on the road you chose
To find out where the winds die and where the stories go
 --Pilgrim (Enya - A Day Without Rain)