On Sat, May 1, 2021 at 4:00 PM dmccunney <dennis.mccun...@gmail.com> wrote: >[..] > You don't host non open source software on Ibiblio. > > Fair enough, but there needs to be a place to put "Free to use" but > *not* open source that will be of use to Freedos (and DOS in general > users) and useful used on DOS/Freedos. It requires written permission > to host for download? What if the author has long since vanished and > the product is abandonware and you can't *get* it? Being in violation > of the license wouldn't be a concern here. Who on Earth might go you > after about it? > > I am principal maintainer for a site called TextEditors.org The focus > is what it says in site name. It's a wiki anyone can update. If it's > a text editor running on a device, the wiki wants to document it. The > hardware is runs on might be anything from an IBM Mainframe to a > pocket calculator. > > Licenses also vary. An editor may be explicitly commercial, > shareware, freeware, open source, or abandonware, where the code and > docs are available but the author has long since vanished from the > Internet. I don't care. I just specify what the license *is*, The > one area where I draw a line is abandoned shareware. If it's > abandoned, but the editor is fully functional without being > registered,, I'll host it. If it's abandoned shareware that will not > fully function without a license, and it's not possible to register it > because long gone authors, I see no point to have it available. > > A lot of stuff I host is historical and long gone., as is the > hardware it ran on. I do my best to provide pointers to documentation > so viewers can learn about what it was, did, and its place in computer > history.
Interesting wiki. I looked up BRIEF but didn't find a download link on the wiki: http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Brief I also found WordStar but didn't see a download link on the wiki: http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WordStar I found SEDIT (shareware) in the wiki, but the download link points to a Simtel mirror owned by someone named Michael Scovetta: http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SEDIT When you say you'll "host" it even if it's proprietary software, do you mean you actually have a copy of the editor on your site, and people can download it from your site? Or do you mean "host" as "there's an entry for it in the wiki"? Putting an entry in a wiki is different than offering a file for download. When you offer a file for download, you are distributing it. And that gets into copyright territory. Yes, I know that some of these programs are effectively "abandoned" and the owners seem to be gone. But do you know if the owner is actually gone? Or did someone else (perhaps another company) swoop in and buy the rights? There are other examples where someone has purchased the rights to some really old software, and then come back to sue someone. For example, DR-DOS (Caldera). I don't want to entangle FreeDOS in the next "Caldera" suit. Especially since we don't have a "FreeDOS Foundation" to provide air cover. (Creating a Foundation is expensive.) > > I think there needs to be a repository for stuff like Eric mentioned, > with a pointer to the site from the Freedos.org home page explicitly > stating "Only free and open source software may be hosted on Ibiblio. > This URL points to a site not on Ibiblio with software that was > recommended by Freedos user as generally useful DOS sofwaret that is > free but *not* open source. If interested you may find it *here*." > > My concern is providing copies of and information *about* DOS and DOS > software. If the software is free to use but *not* open source, I > don't care. It may not be posted *on* Ibiblio, but DOS/Freedos users > should be able to *find* it, with a pointer on Freedos.org to > somewhere other than Ibiblio where it might live. > Do you mean like the "Links" page on the FreeDOS website, that links to (among other places) archives of shareware games and other applications? https://www.freedos.org/links/ >From my other emails a few weeks ago about updating the FreeDOS website, I'm looking to move the "Links" content to other, more visible landing pages. For example: https://test.freedos.org/ And the https://test.freedos.org/about/games/ page (linked from the "Play Games" info box on the front page) says this: >On this page, we'll list a few cool games that you can run on >FreeDOS. If it's gratis, we'll also provide links. Also include >links to the games archives (from the Links page). [I think by >including the content from the Links page into the other pages, I >can probably do away with the Links page.] And the https://test.freedos.org/about/apps/ page (linked from the "Legacy Apps" info box on the front page) says this: >On this page, we'll list a few cool and free (gratis) >applications that you can download and run on FreeDOS. If it's >gratis, we'll also provide links. I think that's what you are suggesting. Or are you suggesting some other link somewhere else? Jim _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
