While reviewing DIET ( https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=783071 ), I stumbled across a issue regarding the tarball availability, and the guideline ( https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:SourceURL ) do not really say what to do if the tarball is behind a form, or requires some registration to be downloaded.
The packager told me he tried to convince upstream to drop the form, without success for now.
While in the case of DIET, I did consider the review can go forward after subscribing myself, I think this can create some problem in some specific cases ( like if the download link require to pay money, or being restricted by ip, or by organisation ) and so would like to have a clarification of the guideline.
Should we : - refuse it, because we consider that the upstream may not have understood free software completely ( ie, we will distribute the tarball in the project, so the restriction is basically useless ) - ask to have all information as a comment ( ie, ask that the information be distribuable ) - do not take care, and consider this is a problem for the maintainer that he is free to solve as he see fit
As long as the license is okay for Fedora, just explain the lack of upstream URL in a comment in the spec file. You may also consider providing the "password" for download in the comments so that others can reproduce from upstream, although, this is not a requirement.
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