[Updated on 22th of June 2015 : Though the two-day offers test completed May 27th, we took further action on our project mirroring program on June 18th. See the update at http://sourceforge.net/
There has recently been some report that the GIMP-Win project on SourceForge has been hijacked; this project was actually abandoned over 18 months ago, and SourceForge has stepped-in to keep this project current. For more details, read on…
The GIMP-Win project was registered on SourceForge in October of 2004. In 2013, the GIMP-Win author discontinued use of SourceForge for download delivery.
Based on our prior outreach to the GIMP-Win author, we understand that they had concerns about the presence of misleading third-party ads on SourceForge. They were not alone in those concerns — we were also concerned — leading us to establish a program to enable users and developers to help us remove misleading and confusing ads.
In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.
When we establish a mirror, we change the status on the project to clearly delineate it as a mirror, and change administrative control of the project to clearly delineate that it is editorially curated by SourceForge.
Mirrored projects help enable end-users to stay current with the latest releases, particularly where SourceForge continues to house historical releases for community benefit.
Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.
Since our change to mirror GIMP-Win, we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project. We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.
[updated on 28-5-2015] Since yesterday, SourceForge Gimp-Win mirror downloads only the original software without any offers. We also invite the Gimp-Win developer to take back control of the project if that is his desire, while respectfully asking that he maintain any project updates or allow us to do so.
GIMP isn’t abandoned, and the GIMP developers don’t want you to host the software. By hosting it anyway wrapped with sleazeware, you cross a line and become just one of those sites that re-host files wrapped with sleaze.
You’re playing a dangerous game, and you’ve made a mistake. So you must remove this project now, or deactivate the sleazeware, and then we can talk about how to keep mistakes like this from happening in the future.
Sourceforge may have some legal problems over this. Especially because of this promise made to it’s users.
“we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any
project without the developers consent.”
So, did the gimp developers grant you permission to use the adware bundled installer?
Yes they did, all GIMP-Win is under LGPL and GPL and sourceforge has complied with all its clauses.
That’s a nice dodge. Did the developers explicitly give you permission, or did you simply exercise your authority to repackage the software granted by the LGPL?
They don’t have to, that right is explicitly granted by the gpl and lgpl.
I’m not arguing that what they did was illegal; I’m arguing that it was unethical. I was also a bit angry when I made the comment, so apologies for that. I’m frustrated because I used to love sf.net – hell, when some friends and I decided to release some OSS, sourceforge was the only place we published it! To see Dice piss away over a decade of community goodwill built by actually being a positive force in open-source development is, frankly, depressing.
Legally, both the GPL and LGPL give you the explicit permission to bundle (aggregate), not link, any software in any way you want.
Morally… that’s a wholly other matter.
They may have the legal right, but that does not excuse an immoral action. Advertising malware puts windows users in a state of constant besiegement that preys on users with lower levels of technical literacy.
Sourceforce should pull this and apologise to its users. I will be closing my projects on sourceforge as I can not trust them anymore.
That was my point – he was saying absolutely nothing, because the software inherently gives explicit permission to rebundle and aggregate in exactly this fashion, but the verbiage implied they had been given *special* permission to do so. In fact, the maintainer of GIMP-Win explicitly objected to this, and was subsequently locked out of his own project.
I doubt I’m telling you anything you don’t know, but…damned, this whole situation is disgusting. Remember when sf was run by techs?
But Source Forge promised it’s users it would never do that without consent. That promise could be more then enough for a civil remedy.
“we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any
project without the developers consent.”
I don’t think LGPL or GPL gives you the right to disguise malicious software and distribute it under the name “GIMP”.
You are free to rename it into whatever you want, but “GIMP” is not yours to use and as a result you are misleading users into content that was not their intention to get, only by exploiting trust that you bought(literally) some time ago.
In my opinion you are no different than any generic phisher out there.
call it LibreGIMP
LGPL and GPL don’t have anything to do with trademark. Names and other marks (like GIMP) are protected by trademark.
The way SourceForge did it doesn’t violate trademark laws. They did not alter the Gimp installer. Instead, they sent you a small program that offered to install stuff you didn’t want followed by downloading and installing the Gimp. The small program was titled “Source Forge Downloader” (or something similar) and when you got to the step for “Click Next to install the GIMP”, it launched GIMP’s unaltered installer.
Nothing about the GIMP was changed, so no trademark violation.
You are correct in saying that SourceForge has complied with the letter of the LGPL and GPL. That is far from follow the spirit of the LGPL, GPL, Free Software community or the Open Source community.
They strongly imply from the structure of the site that what you download from SourceForge is open source. This would mean that the code resulting in the download you run should be available for peer review by anyone. Instead, the code you initially run, the SourceForge installer, is not covered by any Free Software or Open Source license. The code is not available for peer review.
SourceForge then claims to be “transparent” and “open.” Closed source is the exact opposite of transparent. Closed source is the exact opposite of open source.
There have been different times when antivirus engines used by VirusTotal have flagged the SourceForge installer as malware. Why? We don’t know, SourceForge refuses to provide the source code to find out what they are hiding.
SourceForge is the lowest form of scum that pretend to be part of the open source community while injecting their close source malware to enable them to leach off the open source community.
Even if it is technically legal to be misleading asses that promote execution of closed source binaries, that doesn’t mean we just need to sit back and take it. We have things we can do legally too (like under the 1st amendment). Expect “DO NOT USE SourceForge” banners to become more common.
what a bunch of crap . Just remove Gimp from Ad Forge. No discussion.
Wow, what a bad policy and dirty practice you follow. You have lost all trust from any of the last few holdouts who used your site. You should disable abandoned accounts, not assume ownership of them.
https://plus.google.com/+gimp/posts/cxhB1PScFpe Heh, you two have each other on blast. I remember the good old days when someone would just pick up a telephone [and not ask social media’s opinion].
Explain this, please.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
“we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project.”
And if he wants to shut it down so that a more current version of gimp on windows can get recognition, would you comply?
Ulitmately, how much of an interest is it to SF that this fellow not resume the project?
The way you can best serve the GIMP-Win author is to honor his request.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
As of a few hours ago, the link that was labelled as
“gimp-2.8.14-setup-1.exe” (with the info button claiming as 91.1MB
and a sha1sum of 69ff003647df30653a4d23d26c57ebafda75825b)
was pointing to a 730k exe with a sha1sum of 271ea890e881887af2be573f3c5d5f502a417658.
(The link at http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/files/GIMP%20%2B%20GTK%2B%20%28stable%20release%29/GIMP%202.8.14/gimp-2.8.14-setup-1.exe/download for “gimp-2.8.14-setup-1.exe”).
“In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.”
Where did the previous link ( the exe with sha1sum of 271ea890e881887af2be573f3c5d5f502a417658) come from?
It doesn’t appear to be any thing available from
http://download.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.8/windows/
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
What does that mean?
Are you insane? You didn’t even contact them before doing what you did. It is ABSOLUTELY CLEAR from the Google+ post that the Win32 maintainer nor the GIMP team wants you to serve adware installers of their software.
It’s one thing for random shady sites on Google to distribute adware enabled installers for software, though clearly that should not be legal. For a site that once hosted authoritative versions of the software and has now changed it without proper warning, this is absolute fraud.
If you want to clear your reputation, you need to stop *immediately*. It’s already too late. I am blocking sourceforge on my entire network.
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers”
So you admit that you hijack the work of others to bundle with your adware and malware? Well, glad you cleared that up for us.
“Since our change to mirror GIMP-Win, we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project.”
The following is a statement put out by them claiming that have contacted you but you won’t respond :
It appears that SourceForge has taken it upon themselves to take over the project account for GIMP-WIN that was previously handled by our windows maintainer, Jernej Simončič, without our permission.
The account that took over the project is listed on SF as sf-editor1, and apparently has quite a few different FL/OSS projects associated with it (just a little suspicious).
They are distributing ad-enabled installers of GIMP that are not officially recognized by the GIMP team. (We abandoned SourceForge as a distributor back in 2013). They have also not responded to comment or questions so far.
http://www.gimp.org/
As a gentle reminder, please be aware that GIMP is only officially distributed from the website (http://www.gimp.org/downloads).
test
I think that the community is reacting to your blatant money grab by packing popular projects into installers. SourceForge was a place where the FOSS community would come to exchange ideas and amazing software. However (not-so) recently the company that runs it has decided to monetize every action- I feel this will topple you in the long run. Get what you can while you can, I doubt it will last.
So what you’re saying is that you want to keep pushing your malicious installer adware crap even though people are leaving your crappy platform? Classic SourceForge. I’m glad I managed to get my projects deleted after I migrated to Google Code.
So let me get this straight: the GIMP-Win developers were annoyed by SourceForge inserting advertisements, and decided to stop using SourceForge. Next, SourceForge took ownership of their account due to inactivity, and thought the best thing to do was to mirror GIMP, using GIMP’s original account, putting the ads the developers didn’t want in there anyway.
Do you think any of your users will see this in a positive light? Why would anyone continue using SourceForge?
“We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
How about just stop adding ads and third-party apps to other peoples projects?
As of a few hours ago, the link that was labelled as
“gimp-2.8.14-setup-1.exe” (with the info button claiming as
91.1MB and a sha1sum of
69ff003647df30653a4d23d26c57ebafda75825b) was pointing to a
730k exe with a sha1sum of 271ea890e881887af2be573f3c5d5f502a417658.
(The link at ).
> “In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained,
> SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases
> that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.”
Where did the previous link ( the exe with sha1sum of 271ea890e881887af2be573f3c5d5f502a417658) come from?
It doesn’t appear to be any thing available from
> “Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline
> third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
What does that mean?
“Since our change to mirror GIMP-Win, we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project. We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
How about stop distribution of the project?
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
We are ever so grateful for peddling your malware to non-suspecting users.
This place is rapidly becoming obsolete, and this type of behavior will only accelerate that. I can only applaud this move and hope to read the articles that are publicly shaming you for the next couple of weeks.
I’m sure the extra installer with ads is also for the benefit of the users.
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
And that, right there, is why everyone should immediately stop using sourceforge (if they didn’t back in 2012).
If you are going to “help end users” by injecting ads into content that you did not create, then Sourceforge is exactly the problem. Claiming that it’s done by third parties is ridiculous, as Sourceforge is clearly getting paid one way or another.
Let’s publicize this practice as widely as possible.
Related: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
Note the clever wording of the last sentence in the SF blog post.
It’s really sad that the USA have such weak consumer protection laws.
But it’s not a mirror, you’re hosting a custom version of the installer which shows ads not officially recognised by the GIMP team
“Easy-to-decline” is more accurately, ethically, and morally described as “opt-out”. In other words, scumbag pusher tactics.
Shame on all of you.
So it wasn’r abandoned then, it’s been moved somewhere else – and you have started packaging adware with any fool that gets it from you – without the developers consent.
Just read the article on Ars Technica. Congrats, SourceForge. Never again will I download software or encourage any use of your site.
/me cries.
Guess today marks the death of SF. One of the great Vanguards of free software never to get a referral again. 🙁
Of course there aren’t
> When we establish a mirror, we change the status on the project to clearly delineate it as a mirror, and change administrative control of the project to clearly delineate that it is editorially curated by SourceForge.
It is not clearly delineated. It is deliberately misleading.
> In 2013, the GIMP-Win author discontinued use of SourceForge for download delivery.
Nope. It was in use as recently as November 2014.
This is hilariously dishonest.
A “mirror” would indicate that it is the original project, which it is not. It is a unendorsed repackaging of the original code, along with intrusive 3rd party software.
Funny, That’s not what the owner says.
“SourceForge has taken the gimp-win project control away from me
(apparently due to inactivity, although they haven’t done anything
like that with a few other inactive projects I’m a member of), and so
far they haven’t responded to the message I sent them to cease the
distribution of the installer.”
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
It seems like a very bad policy for a hosting service to “step in” and keep a project current. If anything, why not just put a notice up that says the project appears to be inactive?
Does this mean that if I choose to host a project on sourceforge, and then I get it to a place that I am happy with it, and I do not update it for 18 months, I essentially lose control over it? That sourceforge may randomly decide to attach adware to it because I haven’t felt the need to go in and touch a file or two for 18 months? Bullocks.
You people are liars.
It was not abandoned at all and this isn’t the first time you’ve been caught doing this.
Github won, just close down before you ruin your image any further with this BS.
>Jimmy Rustles May 27, 2015 at 5:31 pm #
>
> … Github won ….
I don’t agree with SoureForge’s indiscretions either. However, if GitHub has in fact won, then GitHub needs to step up with a less coder-centric landing page/layout; preferably one with a forking commenting system–if they are going to replace SourceForge as a shining beacon of source code repositories.
“We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
Take your “mirrors” malware installer down and FOAD?
Test – are comments being moderated?
How can you justify this? You can’t even qualify as a mirror, because that implies that the software is unaltered from the download available at the project’s source. By altering the installer, you are not providing a mirroring service.
This is such a trash response. A “mirror” isn’t an entirely different installer that includes adware. I suspect you only hijack “abandoned” projects and make a “mirror” when you seek to benefit from such activity. How would you benefit? I don’t know… installing cheap adware and screwing over your users. This is pathetic.
Shame on you for spreading malware through all these installers and using other people’s work to hide your misdeeds !
A dirty trick to line your grubby pockets.
“We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
Ignoring whether or not your adware helps the GIMP-Win author (do they receive ANY cut of your adware revenue?? And I doubt yet-another mirror is helping much, and even less when it’s bundled with adware…)
How about you best serving your users? Y’know, the ones obtaining software from your service. NO ONE WANTS ADWARE.
Please fuck off with this shit.
“we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project”
My ass you haven’t.
Why cannot the project’s SourceForge download page just link to the source for more recent downloads?
– Sam
Because then they couldn’t side-load other programs with their hand-dandy ‘installer’ – which just prompts you to install symantec and mypcbackup (which even symantec identifies as malware: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2014-080811-2516-99) before downloading the actual installer and running it like normal. They’re not just scumbags, they’re scumbags who can’t even code up decent malware!
They are clearly trying to talk to you guys, why are you denying it? They want to remove the GIMP project from github, and your response is to publicly force them to either maintain their project on sourceforge or mirror THEIR project with adware to ruin their brand? Come on guys, you know that this is dirty businiess, don’t hide it.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
Your checksums also do not match the upstream packages on gimp.org, and if you have done any modifications to the binaries you have to fork it and change the name of the project. If you don’t, you are violating the GPL license and can be in deep trouble.
You guys either have no idea of what you are doing or are very ignorant. They clearly don’t want you to mirror their project, so just stop it.
* from sourceforce, second sentence
You can’t edit your own comment, really?
Here is your request by the original author to cease using the project:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
Also you added misleading and confusing ads. That rather destroys your argument that you did this to help.
Is this a joke?
so… you drove the guy away because the ads and then waited a few months and hi-jacked the account/files. if it was abandoned then you should delete the files not hi-jack them with crapware.
What a bunch of crap. Gimp has been actively maintained ever since they stopped using SF to distribute code, and now you guys are trying to make a quick cashgrab. This is the same bullshit that killed uTorrent, and I hope it kills SF too. I wonder how many software authors will continue to host on SF, knowing the risk is that, at any time, they can get locked out of their account and SF will destroy the reputation of their software by injecting malware and bloatware. Sounds like a smart business model SF, make the most of what you’ve got left, because it’s all downhill from here.
You have taken scumbaggery to a new level.
” In 2013, the GIMP-Win author discontinued use of SourceForge for download delivery.”
Yet the”browse all files” stable release chain has versions contributed on 2014-05-29 and 2014-11-18.
Nevermind the scummy download button ad which appeared on the project page even today.
You’ve discontinued any pretense of ethical behavior. Change the project back.
Damage control at its best.
Here’s an idea: Don’t package adware with open source projects.
.”Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers”
Stop this.
It makes you look bad
I won’t be the last to comment here, but I’ll go ahead and prime it – TL;DR, for those of you just coming into the issue: The GIMP team stopped using SourceForge as their hosting for GIMP For Windows roughly a year and a half ago, in favor of their own server. Recently, due to a large number of third-party links still pointing to the SF page, SourceForge took over the project and gave it a ‘shiny new installer’- long story longer, this installer was riddled with ads. Understandably angry, the team went to go replace the replaced installer back with their own, clean version, only to find that they had been locked out. Anyway, here we are – my view is that if the GIMP team wanted to use their own servers, then it’s not SourceForge’s decision as to whether or not the program is available on their site. Optimally, the team would have taken the SF page offline following the abandoning, but it’s still not OK for service providers to take other’s work, stamp a logo on it, and make it look “official” so they look better. I’d go as far as to say that this falls right under the umbrella of plagiarism – the team clearly didn’t want SourceForge involved at all, and yet SF took the installers and made them their own. Abandoned? Not really. Hijacked? Absolutely.
> We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.
It’s obvious. By not fraudulently serving adware.
This is disgusting. How about respecting the author’s original reasons for leaving in the first place and outright removing the inclusion of scummy ads? Why would anyone want to use SourceForge knowing now that SF can, and will if it’s popular, turn their project page into a shambling zombie that generates SF the ad revenue they seem to now prioritize above all else?
I used to love sourceforge but after the recent steps SF has taken to bundle crap with opensource software, I will never frequent this site again.
You can best serve the authors of the project by restoring their access: https://plus.google.com/+gimp/posts/cxhB1PScFpe
You should not have done what you did, they stopped publishing here because of the malware and you decided that because they did not publish here they just forgot to update it… No, they didn’t want GIMP here and did not want to support SourceForge
nice try, sourceforge.
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
That’s not a “mirror” then is it? If you’re modifying the original distributed content.
So… you just assume it’s in the users’ best interests to take over abandoned projects? Sounds like a ploy to just keep people coming to SourceForge so you can cram ads down their throat. Github or Bitbucket don’t do weird crap like that.
‘When we establish a mirror, we change the status on the project to clearly delineate it as a mirror, and change administrative control of the project to clearly delineate that it is editorially curated by SourceForge.’ You must have a different definition of clearly than the rest of the planet does. I’m looking right now and see no mention whatsoever and I’m LOOKING FOR IT.
“… the files page has the folder GIMP + GTK+ (stable release) with a last modified time of 2014-11-18. In that, GIMP 2.8.14 is the latest with the 2014-11-18 modification date. The previous file, GIMP 2.8.10 has a modification date of 2014-05-29. (This is just shy of 6 months.) The one before that, GIMP 2.8.8 is also last modified 2014-05-29, and the one before that is GIMP 2.8.6 last modified on 2013-06-24. (This one is just shy of 11 months back.) ”
Interesting to see how SF is defining abandoned.
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers…”
Says it all
projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers
You and CNET…
Wow, your mom would be so proud….
You should be ashamed
Guess what? When you fundamentally change the installer and host it, then you are not running a mirror. Instead you are hosting a fork. Shame on you sourceforge.
Did Sourceforge ad addware/malware to the Gimp-Win download?
So basically you’re lying through your teeth here. You did hijack the gimp account. Bad karma
“SourceForge has stepped-in to keep this project current”
Would you mind pointing out to me where the ads are in the *current* official version of GIMP for Windows? Having trouble?
So I realize this is probably going to fall on deaf ears since it seems like you’re cashing in on whatever credibility you have left before you torch the site but Sourceforge used to be a place that was reliable and safe to send a non-tech user to. There weren’t any false download buttons, everything was well maintained and you didn’t have any tricky installers. About a year ago I downloaded Filezilla from your site and was horrified to find that it was bundled with adware and if I remember correctly one of the check boxes actually said something along the lines of “uncheck this box if you would like to install xxxx” in an even slimier attempt to get adware onto my system. Needless to say, I have never recommended your site again and when relevant actually turn people away from it. I really hope you guys find your way and manage to support your site in a non-scummy way.
Perhaps by serving the original binaries, unaltered. That would match the upstream’s intent, since they compile them and offer them on their website.
How inappropriate. No more SourceForge downloads for me… Adding spyware and malware to projects is near criminal.
Thank you for confessing to impresonating the project.
Do you also confess that the build you are distributing is not the official build, yours includes adware?
Looks like I cannot login with my SF account here, so I’ll just post as anon.
Seriously? How do you call it a mirror when you are injecting ads into the installer? Please just shoot yourself and delete this project from SF. This is outlandishly embarrassing for you. Also, nice job on removing contributors from this “abandoned” project.
I will no longer access any project hosted through this service, and will actively inform project maintainers of that fact and why. Your allowing malware and adware downloads via paid advertising is bad enough, hijacking an account inactive or not, and substituting an installer that offers non-affiliated and non-authorized downloads is totally unacceptable. I will also encourage them to move their projects to more reputable hosting providers.
If this action is not stopped asap I will expand my boycott all associated web properties owned or operated by this company.
This is unacceptable, please simply make the project a redirect to the new website.
Funny, I’ve seen mailing list entries from the author saying they asked you to stop and you never replied to them.
I also like that there are absolutely no comments here, seems to me you are burying your head in the sand.
Why there was no response on the email when author of this repo sended you letter about this situation?
So the authors abandoned the project over fears of ads being used in the download, so SourceForge decided the best course of action would be to use the gimp-win project account, put the same ads that made the devs leave in the first place into gimp, and hope people believe that somehow creating a system for users to report malicious in-site ads negates injecting ads into a project that’s not yours?
Seems legit.
Good thing SourceForge is going to go out of business soon. Can’t wait for whatever manager who came up with this genius idea to lose his job.
First rule of fightclub: Don’t download anything from sourceforge.net.
How about best serving people by not including adware/malware? It isn’t yours to tamper with. Tons of people contributed to the project and now you’re ruining it.
Ok, it was hijacked by you, not by 3rd party. So, what is difference?
0 comments, eh? I find that hard to believe, given the scumbag behavior involved.
Seizing an account of a Developer is Still Hi-jacking, even if you try and Justify it. I as a developer will never use SourceForge. for Development or as a repository for software. Ever since you insisted in Adding Add-ware to you downloads. you have lost credibility as a reliable source for Open Source Software.
I will be using an Alternative Open Source repository to SourceForge (Now ScumForge)
This is scumbag behavior, if you think this is good business practice you are sadly mistaken, i will not download from sourceforge ever again.
How ought projects opt out of this? Or are we to expect that all abandoned projects qualify for monetization by sourceforge without the consent of those who made said projects valuable?
Who do you think will actually believe that ?
“Based on our prior outreach to the GIMP-Win author, we understand that they had concerns about the presence of misleading third-party ads on SourceForge.”
“Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers.”
They had concerns about your unscrupulous behaviour and your response is to take over their account, possibly break GPL, and use someone else’s labours to attract downloads of adware for your benefit. I hope the blowback makes an impact on SF management and tempers their actions for the remainder of their careers.
So, the Gimp team had concerns about the presence of misleading third-party ads on SourceForge, (misleading ads that display a download button without disclosing the name of the product), so what you did was create a misleading download buttons that makes people download crapware instead of the program they expected.
Congratulations Sourceforge, you joined donwload.com, 01,net and many others on the list of crapware sites. It’s sad, but I’ll do without you.
So basically, “No we weren’t hacked, yes we hijacked this project and injected malware into a hosted mirror of its installer. Enjoy, friends of open source software!”
If it was abandoned and you aren’t pleased by it, you can simple delete them from your repository.
Forcefully takeover ownership by revoking it’s original owner’s access to the project itself is the definition of hijacking by many dictionaries. No matter how sweet the term you use, it still hijacking.
Sorry. You lost my trust as a user by doing this. I’m move out to somewhere else when looking for open source projects. I wonder how long can you sustain this kind of practice before many people walk away from you.
Bye.
No Abandoned, just no longer wanted on SF. Left SourceForge would be a better way to put it.
Damage control time?
You’re taking open source projects and re-packaging them with adware installers. This isn’t the first time.
You obviously lost your target market to GitHub so now you’re milking whatever you can from what you have left.
As a pro-tip, a mirror is called a mirror, because it’s a mirror.
What you’re doing is a ‘fun house mirror’ you’re distorting the original to make money from it.
For shame sourceforge, for shame.
Disgusting.
So in other words, you took over a popular but abandoned project and installed adware into a new version of the installer, and since the original author didn’t complain you aren’t going to do anything about it.
How about not bundling malware with it?
lmao @ this damage control
inb4 “approving validation” and never appears in the article… lol… hi guys
> We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.
How about you not claim to serve the GIMP-Win author when he has expressed that he doesn’t want you to?
> Comments ( 0 )
Really? Talk about moderation.
sounds a lot like blackmail to me. either use us, or we’ll tarnish your free spirit with ads.
I am disgusted, SF.
>> We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.
Here’s an idea.. How about you don’t bundle crapware with projects who want nothing to do with you anymore. How about you stop relying on your search engine ranking to infect computer users who just want to download GIMP-Win and a whole bunch of other projects.
Way to tell half the story you greedy cunts.
What about the embedded advertising horseshit you added? Adding advertising (or anything else) to something is not mirroring.
“Since our change to mirror GIMP-Win, we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project. We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
Why is discussion necessary?
Surely SourceForce should give control of the account back to the owners, no questions asked. And apologise.
I’d suggest SourceForge might also commit to not (deceptively) wrapping other people’s software installers in ad-ware.
Just because everybody has moved to Github doesn’t mean that SourceForge can’t claw back its reputation and market share. Hijacking people’s accounts and foisting adware just don’t seem like the most effective ways to do that.
I hope you would stop sourceforge. It was awesome 10 years ago and now please go away : (
Sorry guys; this is reason enough not to trust this site anymore as well. Here it goes down the drain like download.com and tucows…
Shame on you, Sourceforge.
You’re evil
you guys have a funny definition of mirror. The last time I looked at myself in a mirror, I wasn’t wrapped in an ad
This makes me even more angry at SourceForge and not less.
1) There is nothing clear and open about the project being abandoned by the author
2) The author left SourceForge due to their business practices and this allows SourceForge to take over the repos and continue making money?
3) Is SourceForge just going to maintain any project that leaves them and makes a mirror?
The sad state of Download.com and SourceForge keeps getting grimmer and grimmer.
The Author’s side fo the issue on a mailing list.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
This is the GIMP developer’s comment on this issue:
https://plus.google.com/+gimp/posts/cxhB1PScFpe
You have lost all credibility. Goodbye sourceforge.
How does your definition of a “mirror” include bundling adware?
“In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.”
I don’t know what you call project hijacking, but you just DEFINED it.
Your installer wrapper with difficult to understand options to not install adware is also not at all welcome. (Here’s a hint, adware is even more annoying than malware.)
Please don’t turn Sourceforge into the new download.com, I don’t think anyone wants to see this insanity happening.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140528081407/http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
Brought to you by: jernejs
http://web.archive.org/web/20150106061411/http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/
Brought to you by: jernejs, sf-editor1
Today:
Brought to you by: sf-editor1
Can you explain why jernejs is no longer the project maintainer? Did he leave the project by himself or SF stuff kicked him out?
I love how you say that you care about the community while loading the downloads (most sad part about FileZilla) with malware.
And this comes from a user that used sourceforge before, participated in the projects and took it as the TRUSTED SOURCE OF PROGRAMS made by the community for the community.
One week ago I downloaded the newest FileZilla. After that It took me 30 minutes to get rid of the junk you forced onto my computer (which took over default websites, changed the default search engines and installed some weird stuff both as an OS application and a Chrome Extension). I declined the installation mind you, yet you still forced the installation of the crap that you get paid for.
Enjoy the dirty money while you still can (not long).
Cheers!
So… the ads…just materialized in there? Out of the blue?
Seriously, people?
You took over dozens of projects. You distribute them in ways that drive users away. You refuse to contact the people who write those programs. Why?
You conveniently forget to mention the wrapper installers, which have suddenly, unaccountably, been removed after gimp developers contacted you.
Gimp developers seem to dispute and disagree with sourceforge’s version of events:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list
I believe them.
Test
“No comments yet.”
Sounds to me like it was both abandoned, *and* hijacked. Despicable behavior on SourceForge’s part, to put it nicely.
“We welcome further discussion about how SourceForge can best serve the GIMP-Win author.”
You can best serve the GIMP-Win author by stopping wrapping other peoples work in your malware downloaders!
You know that some people haven’t quite mastered the English language, or aren’t paying close attention to the installer, enough to opt out of your sponsored malware downloads.
It is unethical and immoral, and the reason why millions of us have long since left you for your competitors.
[slaps the back of your head]
shame on sf.net – this move (hijacking projects and adding other softwareparts to the opensource project) – will KILL sf’s reputation.
well done!
To best server all project authors, you could try being honest. I know you are probably dealing with lawyers which is a tiny step above politicians when it comes to honesty, but you should still give it a shot.
Let’s use the GIMP-Win project as an example:
1. Tell people who come here the author has moved the project. You don’t even need to tell them why. You can continue to hide the flaws in your system from them.
2. Do not add any kind of adware/malware installers to any project files since you don’t allow deletion of projects/files. You know that the average user will blame the wrong party for this, which is likely what you want, but it is still a shit move.
3. Point users to the current location of the project in question so they can keep their software current. Mark the project as moved or something similar with a link to its current home. Simple. Honest.
I will also be sending relevant information to our local TV stations. They love airing this kind of dishonest shit. Concrete examples do wonders.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
Re: [Gimp-developer] Sourceforge downloads
From: Jernej Simončič
To: “Ofnuts on [gimp-developer-list]”
Subject: Re: [Gimp-developer] Sourceforge downloads
Date: Tue, 26 May 2015 17:08:26 +0200
On Tuesday, May 26, 2015, 8:40:08, Ofnuts wrote:
Should this site be closed down entirely (assuming it is still under the
control of someone related to Gimp development)? There are still plenty
of links pointing to it, and it would be better for them to be invalid
instead of pointing to this crap?
SourceForge has taken the gimp-win project control away from me
(apparently due to inactivity, although they haven’t done anything
like that with a few other inactive projects I’m a member of), and so
far they haven’t responded to the message I sent them to cease the
distribution of the installer.
—
< Jernej Simončič
I doubt this would be as much of a hub-bub if you didn’t have those “easy-to-decline third-party offers” inside the installer now.
C’mon guys, you’re geeks too, you know those things are horrible.
There is zero excuse for bundling any third-party software, especially adware and malware. My view of SF is permanently damaged due to this breach of integrity.
I read about this on three separate tech sites and Reddit. All of them now recommend avoiding sourceforge as a rouge malware site. There is serious talk of adding the site to block lists on ublock and Bullguard so that users are safely redirected away from the source of the malware.
How about you stop bundling adware with projects?
tl;dr:
When you abandon our greedy platform we are entitled to continue your project on our behalf and mislead users by bundling malware with your binaries.
So in fact it was hijacked… by you?
Just keep riding that spinner master, guys. I’m sure it’ll soon be sorted out.
Its not going to give you enough time to recover when it becomes bad bad news and sf is gone as the main source of opensoftware.
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
“SourceForge has taken the gimp-win project control away from me (apparently due to inactivity, although they haven’t done anything like that with a few other inactive projects I’m a member of), and so far they haven’t responded to the message I sent them to cease the distribution of the installer.”
It would seem your blog post has done little to nothing to justify your actions. Have a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9617285 to see where the reputation of sourceforge now stands.
It would also seem that sourceforge have not responded to messages from the REAL project maintainer for sourceforge https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html (you do realise the suggestion of seeking legal aid was raised here?)
Further, you blog post seems to be a complicated way of saying “we hijacked a project that we decided had been abandoned” (abandoned or not, you took control away from the real project maintainer).
Take a leaf out of valves book here, https://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/208632365253244218 , admit you where wrong and stop doing it.
Discussion on HackerNews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9617285
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/files/?source=navbar
Abandoned when? Sources please.
You people are scumbags. This isn’t an excuse for repping ownership of a project (even if you “clearly delineate” you aren’t the author), and the third party adware is a fucking travesty. You are the problem. I will not be using SourceForge in any way going forward.
“SourceForge has stepped-in to keep this project current”
Why? Do you code the GIMP?
Stop making excuses. You will best serve the GIMP-Win author by removing the project wholly from Sourceforge, rather than bundling it inside your ad-laden installer.
You once were great. See how the Great have fallen.
This entire posts sounds like “We didn’t hijack the project, we hijacked the project.” The bottom line is SF is using the popular GIMp-Win project to distribute unwanted third-party software. That is a malicious act, no matter how much you butter it up with nice sounding language.
Seems kind of slimy to bundle adware (or ‘malware’ if we’re being nasty because let’s face it…I don’t actually know what the bundled software does) into programs under the guise of “mirror” but that’s this developer’s opinion. You don’t seem to have high regard for GIMP’s reputation or your own by doing such things and pretending they’re something else.Why not just leave the project abandoned? I’m guessing the adware is some profit initiative. At any rate, it bodes poorly for your reputation.
Thank you for clarifying the intentions here. I now very cleary understand that I need to migrate everything I’m assosiated with and every FOSS project I have any influence on off of SF. Permanently. This sort of shinanagins is completely unacceptable and whatever management approved this plan cannot be trusted with other people’s stuff.
> “SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.”
I don’t think anyone cares about providing mirrors, in fact some people would welcome that but instead you are also adding a ad-based installer to those binaries thus them no longer being mirrors and are essentially forks of the binaries.
Remove the installer and likely all would be fine.
> “Since our change to mirror GIMP-Win, we have received no requests by the original author to resume use of this project.”
This is in direct contradiction to what the original author said on a mailing list yesterday. – https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
“Mirrored projects help enable end-users to stay current with the latest releases, particularly where SourceForge continues to house historical releases for community benefit.
Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
Unless you’re updating the download from Gimp, you’re lying on your first explanation to ‘stay current’.
Your second explanation is simply a nice way of saying “we hijacked this project to wrap our software affiliate program installer with this to help monetize an abandoned program” in corporate speak. What makes you think that this is beneficial to the people who abandoned the project or the people looking for the executable?
That’s weak. You don’t have a mirror, you have a fork. A fork with advertisements. SourceForge is dying, and this will only speed up the process.
Your definitions of “maintained” and “mirror” are both
incorrect. GIMP is maintained and your mirror is not an exact copy. Please rename the project and call this what it is, which is AdWare-Enabled-GIMP-Win. You and your company give open source a bad name, which is sad considering all of great projects that have born out of SF.net.
This is why people are leaving SF behind. You, unapologetically, are saying that the GIMP-Win author has to resume using SF or else you will use his work to make $$ from 3rd parties.
It was hijacked, by you, after it was abandoned.
The two are not mutually exclusive. You hijacked it to push malware onto people’s computers to boost your profit margins.
IN RESPONSE TO SOURCEFORGE EDITORS
How this was done was wrong.
You write: “Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
It’s wrong because it’s disingenuous – an insincere representation of the GIMP maintainers package, to include adware in the package.
You insufficiently differentiate this “gimp-win” project with the small, coded byline: “Brought to you by: sf-editor1” (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/files/)
Let’s be blatant and honest: this is “SF-GIMP” not GIMP. It’s being operated here under the guise of the authors and currently not sufficiently identified as a fork.
Don’t skirt “adoption responsibility” by simply writing a post to some unrelated blog article after the fact and create a collection of unrelated “deceptive ad blocking” website tools.
* Be up front and bold about “adopting”!
* Free software or not this adoption stinks!
Pull the project from your site.
The project wasn’t abandoned. The project stopped using sourceforge. The project moved. There is a difference. The project is not the service. Further the page is not clearly delineated that it is not the official page GIMP release and doesn’t even link to the official GIMP homepage. “Mirror” appears once on the page over in the upper right in small sidebar with nonsensical wording. You are not mirroring in the usual sense of the word because you are distributing modified releases of the project. That is not a mirror. That is fraud.
The author hasn’t requested to resume use of the repository, but he has asked you to stop distributing the adware:
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html
You are leveraging the good name and hard work of an open source project for your own gain. Further, your practices of installing adware have a negative impact on the reputation of the project. Your practices are unethical and are of no benefit to users or community.
We just don’t want it bundled with your extra crap in a lame attempt to make money. Is that so hard?
TL;DR. There is no explanation that is going to absolve this douchery. How this really went down was, “hey, let’s do a filtered search on popular software that has the appearance of being “abandoned” then stuff it full of adware so we can make some money.” That is really the only truthful explanation.
So in other words, it was hijacked BECAUSE it was abandoned. Doesn’t change the fact that it was hijacked. Absolutely disgusting.
Oh yes, please, do keep moderating comments.
Sound PR, folks. Keep it classy.
Nothing gives you the right to unilaterally take over a project; abandoned or not. Furthermore, nothing gives you the right to bundle it with malware.
I used to love sourceforge. But it’s alright. The internet has deciding. Yours is a failing site and you will be forgotten and relegated to the dustbin of internet history. Furthermore you will have no one to blame but yourselves and your shortsighted money-grubbing policies.
keep the project “current” by adding malware, sounds like a great plan
i just start blocking sourceforge from all the computers of my company, even with those excuses i dont believe you
I am convinced that your adding the adware
Other discussion online:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/sourceforge-grabs-gimp-for-windows-account-wraps-installer-in-bundle-pushing-adware/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/28/sourceforge_accused_of_shackling_gimp_in_kinky_adware/
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/37ihs0/sourceforge_grabs_gimp_for_windows_account_wraps/
Would it not be better just to remove it then, rather than add your own stuff in the guise of the SourceForge Installer?
I don’t know the best way to serve the author of GIMP-Win or other projects that are abandoned. I do know, clearly, that one of the very worst things that can be done is to hijack someone else’s work and then make a revenue grab by burying it under a thick layer of adware. This is a disservice to the author and to those that wish to obtain and the software in question.
One does not have to be an expert on ethics to realize that this tactic is highly questionable. This site was previously a haven for open source software development and distribution. With this move, SourceForge has potentially burned up nearly all of its remaining goodwill held within the minds of developers. Whatever was left over was then squandered with this non-apology blog post.
I came up with four better choices when it comes to abandoned projects:
1) Fork it yourself and give your fork a new name that won’t be confused with the abandoned project by casual observers.
2) Provide an offsite link to the new home of the project.
3) Remove the project entirely.
4) Do absolutely nothing at all.
SF.net: You’re better than this. This is not the sort of behavior that engenders trust and respect from the community and you know it. You need to stop this behavior and offer a retraction. Full stop. End of story. This justification serves no purpose other than to paint SF.net in a community-hostile way.
You know what you have to do. Please own up to it.
Really? The excuse is that if an open source project chooses to disassociate itself from SourceForge you will try to leverage it as an advertisement revenue vehicle? And you thought this explanation would clear things up?
No means no, SourceForge.
filezilla is not abandoned and you put adware in their installer ¬¬
Sadly the Filezilla maintainers decided to take part in the scumbaggery themselves… Grab a copy of winscp. It’s a better product and doesn’t have any malware or adware. It also supports FTP, as well as encrypted SFTP, and SCP.
So, this is how your guys “brilliant” solution to adblock?
Hi everyone.
I just noticed what was happening just there. I feel bad that people can just put third-parties crap on open source projects. I’m sad about this Gimp and Filezilla stories which are the best I’d recommend in their respective categories.
But you know, hundreds of comments, why do I need to write down an other one, given the fact I would have nothing to add..
BUT I have a question for you all, I’m currently working as work experience in a teaching hospital. In my job I need to detect genes on pathogenic bacteria genomes. I was using a soft called Maximum Common Genome Phylogeny for the phylogenetic trees stuff. Today a colleague just informed me that the soft was no longer available and thus it was becoming way complicated to set up the new Virtual Machine…
SO the question is “what happened ?” Is this linked to the fact that SourceForge is doing wrong ?
MCGP was released late 2014…
Original project page was there: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mcgp/
The only thing left is “Project activity”…
If you have info, mail is khytau {at} hotmail {dot} fr
Adware wrappers suck, and so do the people that implement them over others’ hard work. Adios for good, SF.
This has made me leery of ever downloading from (or linking to) sourceforge ever again. Paragraph after paragraph of “we’re doing absolutely nothing wrong” followed by a quick, “okay, yes, we put the teensiest scoshe of adware in it” is straight-up dishonest bullcrap.
Be kind to yourselves. Stop doing this.
When I was a child, sourceforge represented the work of people blazing a path in popular open-source software. Now, you’ve turned into yet another site where you can download windows software from, if you’re willing to install random sleazeware.
I’m sure that many sourceforge employees have names recognized elsewhere. You may wish to jump ship before your name is soiled.
This is just another nail in the coffin. I can not believe that anybody actually thought about this or if they did it was probably more along the lines of “Can we get away with this” this is not only dishonest, it’s downright sleazy.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Is this what abandoned looks like?
sourceforge appears to be getting more and more shady. I am going to try to avoid downloading anything from the site.
I’ve been avoiding SourceForge as much as possible. I’m not interested in dealing with SF, and I don’t want to worry about whether what I’m downloading comes with an unwanted install-wrapper, or loads unwanted projects.
SourceForge can shutter. The world will move on, and leave this site flailing on dry land, gasping for the ocean.
Heh. Not to much effort to go out of my way not to use this site after this. glhf?
One reason why, after 10 years, I no longer use SourcForge, Besides, with the rise of GitHub, SourceForge is spiralling fast down the toilet.
So long SF!
Who cares if its hijacked or abandoned. They refuse to also delete projects, which means that their adware crap long term can ruin our rep (and there is no way we can escape, since our names will still be plastered on the source code tree).
A project I tried to remove was totally useless, and did the opposite of what it tried to accomplish, and was dropped almost immediately. Nobody would use it, its embarrassing I was so naive, and yet, SF thinks its important.
I can get the project deleted though, if SF goes bankrupt (which SF management has left us as our ONLY move). So, SF can either change their policies to be community oriented again, or, they can pray long term that the developers whose rep they are ruining, don’t make more noise.
Stealing other people’s account? Stealing other people’s work and bundling unwanted junk with that? Classy, really… FYI, the GIMP project is very actively maintained. Just not on your junky site, since you attempted to abuse it previously, so they moved their installers elsewhere. “Project is no longer actively being maintained” – what a load of BS!
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/anatomy-of-sourceforge-gimp-controversy
easy-to-decline, really?
pathetic “businessmen”, I wish you a lawsuit that will ruin you financially
I’ve migrated all of my codebases to github, removed all downloadables, and changed the names of all of my projects to “delete this project”:
http://sourceforge.net/u/zooko/profile/
I’ve also asked the admins of Crypto++ and pyOpenSSL, for whom I am a contributor but not an admin, to do the same.
I also saw that http://sourceforge.net/projects/twisted/ did the same.
I encourage every member of the Free Software and Open Source communities to do likewise.
Hah! Our company firewall/IPS blocked downloads a few months ago and I had to make overrides.. Now I know why. SourceForge is going on the “”deny” list, you are scumbags and should just close this place down.
You’re really going toward a classy ending, Sourceforge. You used to be cool…
good luck getting people to download from your shady website again.
sourceforge = scam
Since a long time, I don’t used Sourceforge anymore. But now, it’s different: I will be really careful and actively avoid it.
For some reason slashdot submissions on the topic are being ignored.
You seem to have found a way to spread the loss of respect to your sister site. I think there is enough to go around tho.
Wow, this is a great case study in how greed makes people forget the most elementary code of ethics. Why would anyone again want to upload or download things from Sourceforge? From today on, I will seek out alternative download locations for whatever I used to get from Sourceforge.
Well that’s that. Just another ad-riddled, ad-wrappered, ad-fueled, and ultimately addled website to avoid like the plague.
SourceForge will be dead within a year. Your users are leaving, never to return. Bad business practices only get you so far, and you’ve reached the end of the road. Bye bye.
This is terrible. I really appreciate what SourceForge has done over the years, when it was *the* site for FOSS, and I hosted several projects here. Due to some earlier issues and the benefits that Github brings to open source developers I moved my projects over there. Now it seems I have to come back here every now and then to check whether my projects are “considered abandoned” and crapware installers for them are published here… So classy SourceForge! I will remove any links to old versions that were/are available for download here.
Even though its legal, it’s completely immoral.
This is ugly!
>SF.net: You’re better than this.
No they are not, SF.net is just another malware site now. They are in it for the money only.
Unacceptable: “Mirrored projects are sometimes used to deliver easy-to-decline third-party offers, and the original downloads are always available.”
SourceForge must never add “easy-to-decline” offers. Instead, SourceForge should go out of its way and prevent SorceForge servers from hosting any installers with such offers, regardless of the party who inserted the offers, such as the authors of the packages. These offers are a disgrace and must not be tolerated.
Can’t shame the shameless.
It’s their dying breath anyway, they’re making some “revenue” on the way out.
This is brilliant – get devs to flee the site because of your deceptive/dangerous ads, then ‘mirror’ their project, distributing their work without their consent, and bundle it with your installer without their consent – much better than having users stay with your service and exert control over how you distribute THEIR software!
I will henceforth recommend anyone who asks me about FOSS that they do not go to sourceforge. This behaviour is unacceptable, and I hope this site dies swiftly. It no longer deserves a place in the FOSS community.
Just so we’re clear, things went down like this, right?
1 GIMP leaves the site due to your deceptive advertising practices, windows build maintainer Jernej Simončič continues posting windows builds here for convenience under the gimp-win project
2 You roll out an optional installer that bundles crapware in exchange for revenue sharing
3 You start ‘mirroring’ other people’s open-source software so you can bundle said installer with it
4 You take the gimp-win project away from Jernej Simončič and add it to your mirror program, allowing you to bundle the installer without the author first opting in.
5 Now that gimp-win is a ‘mirror’ project, you can use your installer with it whether the author likes it or not
6 As a result, you get everything you want – ads *and* the installer – and you don’t owe the people who *make* the software any portion of the revenue you make distributing their hard work!
You guys are brilliant!
Bundling adware means you lose your credibility, period. Without credibility you’re no different from any of the other many download sites that have failed before you.
YOU ARN’T TRUSTED FOR OPEN SOURCE ANYMORE.
You’re not adding anything of value with “easy-to-decline third-party offers” and you know it. To pretend you’re doing something positive here (or with any other project that you modify similarly) is to insult the intelligence of the software community. You used to be something cool. Now you are basically CNET.
Isn’t it true that bundling proprietary software with GPL code causes the licencee to permanently and irrevocably loose their license to distribute? Is the ‘value added’ software included in the installer GPL compliant? Sourceforge might have a bigger legal problem than they have anticipated on their hands.
Sourceforge are gone !
I used to use sourceforge a lot, and I still follow some projects that are hosted here. But… not anymore. You’ve ruined yourself sourceforge. I’ll never be back.
So the GIMP project moved to a different site, and you found it fitting to compile new ad-infested installers and pretend it was an official release?
One word: WOW. Now please excuse me while I blackhole sourceforge.* in my router.
I don’t trust SourceForge to not mess with the EULA.
I suspect that they will slip in language that says we can install anything we want regardless of what you selected to install.
Nothing from Sourceforge should be trusted as safe to install.
Bye Sourceforge!
“This is a 100% opt-in program for the developer, and we want to reassure you that we will NEVER bundle offers with any project without the developers consent.”
http://sourceforge.net/blog/advertising-bundling-community-and-criticism/
“When we establish a mirror, we change the status on the project to clearly delineate it as a mirror, and change administrative control of the project to clearly delineate that it is editorially curated by SourceForge.”
is this joke? http://web.archive.org/web/20140530092839/http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-win/?source=directory Where does it say it is mirror? Excuse me, are you still lying to FLOSS community?
Good job Dice, way to continue to destroy historically significant sites.
Respect the ethical position of the creators of the GIMP and if they want to, let them go.
And (allow them to first) remove the project page including all files.
If GIMP allowed one or more of their volunteers to run the project page, it doesn’t mean that these volunteer own the project pages.
The law is very explicit about ownership in the cases of projects run by volunteers.
what you have done is evil
[updated on 28-5-2015]
gimp back to sourceforge ? why
sourceforge is untrusted now
Dear sourceforge welcome in our family!
—
With best regards,
nigerian scamers & spammers
A Nmap le vuelve a tocar la china, esta vez con Sourceforge
…
SF was a so trusted website … it’s a shame to see it drowning itself like that, in the worst part of the internet scammers
It’s really unfortunate that Dice has killed slashdot, and now sourceforge, as reliable community sites and brands.
We now know that sourceforge distributes malware in a tricky manner. We now must warn our users off of sourceforge, the same way we warn them off of download.cnet.com, softonic, et al.
Bravo. Well done. Keep up the good work!
I can no longer trust SF. A very great pity.
“The truth shall make you free”, Dice.
Being DICEy is Not Good Business!
The site was a valuable resource, but if I mention it to anyone at all, it will be to warn them to stay away. If you wanted to make a few bucks off the site before killing it off, I think you can erect the “MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED” banner. Seriously, just shut the site down because you’ve already delivered the fatal blow to it.