Package redirects as a solution

[Warren Togami]

Michel Alexandre Salim wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-02-01 at 17:11 -0500, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> [snip]
> 
>>I agree with the earlier suggestion that package-level redirects would
>>be a good solution for some of this sort of thing.  So, for example,
>>the Fedora yum repository could carry a redirect that would send
>>queries for flash-plugin to the macromedia site.
> 
> 
> Is it absolutely certain that that is permissible? IMHO this is
> analogous to displaying a copyrighted image on your website that is
> streamed off someone else's website. You would be claiming to host the
> file while actually leeching someone's bandwith.
> 
> - Michel

I personally don't see a problem in the case of flash-plugin. 
Macromedia is mainly concerned about getting download statistics for 
every download in order to gauge marketshare.  I would suggest that it 
is also within our interests to allow them to do so.  We can show that 
we do exist and use their plugin.  I personally don't care if anyone 
implements this as long as it requires zero of my time.  Don't expect 
anything dynamic on the mirrors either, because we are using static 
pages for security reasons.

If anyone actually implements this, don't point at macromedia.mplug.org 
and use the other mirrors.  Also please choose the right package for the 
right distribution so the distribution breakdown statistics remain correct.

(Scroll to the bottom of the macromedia.mplug.org main page to see the 
download statistics.)

Warren