Oeee...I hate sourceforge

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alex.barylski
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Oeee...I hate sourceforge

Post by alex.barylski »

I requested a project I submitted a while back be removed as I no longer wish to have my name or my business name attached to the project...

This is the reply I received...
As per our data retention policy, we will not remove the project, since it
has released data that might be useful to other developers. In doing so,
we cannot remove your copyright or your name from the copyright, as that
would be a violation of the license of the code you have released. I
have, however, removed your user from the project so as to cease
associating your name with the ongoing maintenance of the project.
This is the second reply, the first reply informed me they will only remove when legal reasons come into play...how about...it's my project...my copyright...my final decision? Haha...

I'll have to contact a lawyer :(

I'll never post anything to sourceforge.net again :(
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Blog where art thou?
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TheMoose
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Post by TheMoose »

http://sourceforge.net/tos/tos.php

I'm no lawyer, but their TOS specifically says you have control over your own content on their site, so long as it falls under a proper license.

Specifically:
may preserve Content ... *snip* ... or as reasonably determined useful by us to protect the rights, property or personal safety of OSTG, SourceForge.net users and the public. OSTG does not control the Content posted via the Service ...
Content located on any SourceForge.net-hosted subdomain which is subject to the sole editorial control of the owner or licensee of such subdomain....*snip*
OSTG respects the intellectual property rights of others, and requires that the people who use the SourceForge.net website do the same. It is our policy to respond promptly to claims of intellectual property misuse.

If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on this site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify us by providing our copyright agent with the following information in writing:

1. the electronic or physical signature of the owner of the copyright or the person authorized to act on the owner's behalf;
2. identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
3. identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to permit OSTG to locate the material;
4. your name, address, telephone number, and email address;
5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
6. a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or are authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

If OSTG receives such a claim, OSTG reserves the right to refuse or delete Content as described under Section 5 hereto, or to terminate a user's account in accordance with Section 9.
It's not exactly copied, but it is accessible on their site and it definitely constitutes infringement as they are displaying it without your consent. But then again it depends on the license you chose to release your code under. If the license states that the end-user must be able to retrieve code should they misplace theirs, then they (and you) would be in breach of that license if they were to remove access to your project.
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RobertGonzalez
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Re: Oeee...I hate sourceforge

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Hockey wrote:
As per our data retention policy, we will not remove the project, since it
has released data that might be useful to other developers. In doing so,
we cannot remove your copyright or your name from the copyright, as that
would be a violation of the license of the code you have released
.
Sounds like you kinda shot yourself square in the arse on that one, eh?

PS when are you going to put up a blog so we can comment on your blog posts? :wink:
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Location: Ireland

Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

You do realise your code is open source if you managed to get SF hosting? That means you deliberately limited your rights over all publicly released code, which means you legally cannot backtrack prior licensing since it infringes everyone else's rights as licensees. However can't you just hide all releases and empty subversion? That much is well within your rights. The project pages themselves are all SFs, but the public data regarding descriptions, public name, and even UNIX name are all editable if you were an Admin.

Also the quoted SF text I believe refers to their webspace primarily. The SF decision to Hockey referred only to the deletion of the project entry not the entry's editable information. I think the SF reply is a bit confused - they can retain data like released code, but any Admin can hide it from being publicly visible.
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

Maugrim's right, but unlucky for you they removed your name from the project so you can no longer edit it ;)
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AKA Panama Jack
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Post by AKA Panama Jack »

d11wtq wrote:Maugrim's right, but unlucky for you they removed your name from the project so you can no longer edit it ;)
Really...

He could have deleted every single download to prevent them from being accessed or just turned off access to the file areas. If he had CVS or SVN enabled he could have turned them off so NO ONE but himself had access to them (IE: no longer publicly available).

Heck, if he was worried about the CVS or SVN he could have asked them to delete the branch because he wanted to start it over with new code and then upload NOTHING.

It would be very easy to make whatever project he was the admin go dark on his own.
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