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Account required for community download #2493

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jayjay73 opened this issue Jan 30, 2025 · 1 comment
Open

Account required for community download #2493

jayjay73 opened this issue Jan 30, 2025 · 1 comment
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@jayjay73
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Hi all,

Why is the community download hidden behind an account requiring signup? If I follow this link https://community.gns3.com/software/download I get bounced to this one: https://gns3.com/software/download. Which requires me to register an account to download the software.

Questions:

  • Why?
  • Is this for email / consent to contact harvesting?
  • Do you use the information collected for tracking purposes?
  • What happens with the data collected?
  • Isn't this a (generally overlooked, but still) GPL Violation?
  • And finally who collects the data and in which jurisdiction does this happen?
@grossmj
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grossmj commented Jan 30, 2025

Why?

GNS3 is sponsored by a US company, Solarwinds, which must follow US export laws and restrict downloads on gns3.com for some countries.

Alternatively if you are not interested to sign up to the community, I would recommend to download directly from GitHub: https://github.com/GNS3/gns3-gui/releases

Is this for email / consent to contact harvesting?

Emails are collected for a monthly newsletter (you can unsubscribe anytime) and potentially some direct marketing emails to promote Solarwinds products.

What happens with the data collected?

I assume the data is stored in a database and used for marketing. Sorry, I don't have details since I don't work in the marketing team, I only focus on GNS3 development.

Isn't this a (generally overlooked, but still) GPL Violation?

I don't think so, however I would like to hear more if you find information about this.

And finally who collects the data and in which jurisdiction does this happen?

Solarwinds collects the data, the jurisdiction is the USA.

Finally, I would like to add that GNS3 is totally free without limitations, Solarwinds pays for development cost in exchange of collecting data for marketing purposes. While not ideal, I think it has been a good balance so far.

Let me know your thoughts, is it a deal breaker for you?

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