Sourceforge has been quick to respond to the accusations

May 28, 2015 09:55 GMT  ·  By

GIMP and Sourceforge are once more in the middle of a dispute after the hosting service took control of the GIMP project page and injected the installer with ads. This is only a half-truth or at least this is what Sourceforge is saying.

Some of you might remember that a while back the GIMP developers advised everyone not to download the installers from Sourceforge because they were embedded with adware. Things cooled down after that incident, but they were never really solved. The GIMP team simply advised everyone to download the packages from the official website and ignore Sourceforge.

Now, the same GIMP team says that Sourceforge has appropriated the project's page, and they are now in full control. The Sourceforge hosted packages were distributed with adware once more, the GIMP devs can't even access their account, and they have been locked out. As you can imagine, many users have expressed their disappointment.

Sourceforge has responded

Since GIMP has a pretty big following, when its makers launch accusations, it's likely that Sourceforge will respond, which they have. Their version is that the GIMP devs have pretty much abandoned the project, and Sourceforge has taken over. They provide some evidence in this regard.

"The GIMP-Win project was registered on SourceForge in October of 2004.  In 2013, the GIMP-Win author discontinued use of SourceForge for download delivery. Based on our prior outreach to the GIMP-Win author, we understand that they had concerns about the presence of misleading third-party ads on SourceForge. In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win" is noted in a blog entry.

Sourceforge is basically saying that, if the developers don't access their project for a longer period and if it's something that people are still looking for, they will assume control. Also, they haven't denied that adware is being implemented in the package, although they are not calling it that. The official name is "easy-to-decline third-party offers," but it doesn't sound good, no matter how you say it.

At this point, it doesn't really matter who is right or if Sourceforge has the right to do what it does, but there is clearly one loser. No matter what is happening next, Sourceforge has another PR nightmare on its hands.