Dealing with a click-through license

[Randolph M. Fritz]

It's Radiance. It is hard to change, perhaps not possible at all. Is there
any way MacPorts can accommodate this, perhaps as a source-only port?

What do people think?

[Ryan Schmidt]

It's Radiance. It is hard to change, perhaps not possible at all. Is there any way MacPorts can accommodate this, perhaps as a source-only port?
What do people think?

You are referring to a software project whose web site makes you agree to a license agreement before offering you a download file?

If so, there are several possibilities. Of course MacPorts cannot deal with such a multistep download situation, so try to discover whether it can be circumvented. For example, if you manually fill out the form, and you get the file, you can see what URL the file was downloaded from (by getting info on it in the Finder, for example). Can you download the file using curl on the command line using that same URL, without having completed the form? If so, you can use that URL in the Portfile. Or, now that you know the filename, can you find the same filename hosted elsewhere on the Internet? If so, and you've verified the checksums of the file at its original file and at the alternate location are identical, you can use that alternate URL in the Portfile.

I Googled "radiance download" and found a download link that was not encumbered by a click-though form, but maybe I found a different "radiance" than the one you're talking about,.

[Randolph M. Fritz]

No, you can download it. The license is an old BSD license, so it's pretty
good, but users are required to read and accept it. Is there any way to
accommodate this, or do I simply have to say that we can't distribute a
portfile for the system?

(Sorry for the double post, Ryan. Someday I will remember to click "reply
all" when responding to a MacPorts post, but that day is not today.)
--

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
It's Radiance. It is hard to change, perhaps not possible at all. Is

there any way MacPorts can accommodate this, perhaps as a source-only port?

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
What do people think?

You are referring to a software project whose web site makes you agree to
a license agreement before offering you a download file?
If so, there are several possibilities. Of course MacPorts cannot deal
with such a multistep download situation, so try to discover whether it can
be circumvented. For example, if you manually fill out the form, and you
get the file, you can see what URL the file was downloaded from (by getting
info on it in the Finder, for example). Can you download the file using
curl on the command line using that same URL, without having completed the
form? If so, you can use that URL in the Portfile. Or, now that you know
the filename, can you find the same filename hosted elsewhere on the
Internet? If so, and you've verified the checksums of the file at its
original file and at the alternate location are identical, you can use that
alternate URL in the Portfile.
I Googled "radiance download" and found a download link that was not
encumbered by a click-though form, but maybe I found a different "radiance"
than the one you're talking about,.

[Joshua Root]

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
No, you can download it. The license is an old BSD license, so it's
pretty good, but users are required to read and accept it. Is there any
way to accommodate this, or do I simply have to say that we can't
distribute a portfile for the system?

I don't understand the problem. How is this instance of the BSD license
more problematic than any other? You don't need a copyright license to
download or use software, just to redistribute it.

- Josh

[Rainer Müller]

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
No, you can download it. The license is an old BSD license, so it's
pretty good, but users are required to read and accept it. Is there any
way to accommodate this, or do I simply have to say that we can't
distribute a portfile for the system?

Even if the distfile cannot be downloaded, you could still write a
Portfile, but users would be required to download the file manually.

As an example, see the geoexpress-sdk port that does something similar:

https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/b11b60aec24d59304043c28492741554e0e616e2/gis/geoexpress-sdk/Portfile

Rainer

[Randolph M. Fritz]

At some point, the license has to be shown and the question has to be
asked. Perhaps the way to do it is to have a separate small port that gets
license acceptance and store the result somewhere, and then have the main
portfile check for the acceptance.
--

Post by Rainer Müller

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
No, you can download it. The license is an old BSD license, so it's
pretty good, but users are required to read and accept it. Is there any
way to accommodate this, or do I simply have to say that we can't
distribute a portfile for the system?

Even if the distfile cannot be downloaded, you could still write a
Portfile, but users would be required to download the file manually.
https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/blob/b11b60aec24d59304043c28492741554e0e616e2/gis/geoexpress-sdk/Portfile
Rainer

[Joshua Root]

Post by Randolph M. Fritz
At some point, the license has to be shown and the question has to be
asked.

Can you point us to where this requirement is stated? It's not part of
the standard BSD license.

- Josh