I too agree that we should respect his decision, but it seems, well, irrational. Every day we see stuff going viral of things people pulled from the web more than a decade ago, because the web is archived by more people than you. There’s no functional problem with the assumption of reading it from the official domain, and it’s something that people are familiar with. And really, again, it’s not as if stopping you actually stops the information from being available. It just makes it more annoying and difficult, not impossible.
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I’m a bit confused on this – wasn’t ManuelbastioniLAB, including the website’s documentation, under a CC BY 4.0 license? If so, Manuel not only has no legal right to prevent distribution of copies, but there’s an argument to be made that attempting to do so is unethical and we shouldn’t “respect his decision”. Isn’t preventing this kind of erasure, at least partly, pretty much the point?
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but there could be a post to show how many people would buy this program. I still used the ported over version in 2.8 and I would definitely agree to pay for it.
I’m agree with kobaltween, we must respect the decision of manuel bastioni but it is irrational.
If manuel had proposed un subscription, i had pay to help the developpment of his software because it is incredible.
Manuel has made an other choice and he seems to want to charge the users by by preventing development from continuing without him.
It seems unfair to me.
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I have no stake in this as I don’t use the addon, but may I just say, that’s extremely unprofessional, and very much counter to the spirit of FOSS.
I’d respect his wishes in the end, but think twice about doing any future business.
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I do wonder if the internet archive couldn’t help.
https://archive.org/contribute.php
https://archive.org/about/
Perhaps in time it could all be folded into the makehuman project. They are working are their own Blender plugin.
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I haven’t been following Makehuman since MBLab came out… how’s their progress?
models are still ugly as a sin, but isn’t abandoned
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I found this archived version of the Manuel Bastioni Lab Version 1.6.1. Tried it out, and it works in Blender 2.79
http://peripheralarbor.com/manuelbastionilab_161.zip
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I can attest how ugly they are… the only reason to have a saved build of blender 2.79 for MBLab
I loved Manuel for all the work and dedication he put into MBL. Fantastic job!! GREAT product!
I hate Manuel for the way he shut down his project. Very sad, very unprofessional.
Now he apparently states “I DO NOT AUTHORIZE the publication of a copy of my old website”.
Fine. We won’t resurrect a zombie website. I however remember reading on that very site that everything would be free forever (and ok, he did not complain when we ran with his abandoned project) so, let’s have a good look at the content of the site (FAQs, Tuts, tips, whatever) to determine their license. If they are under a free and open license, let us reuse them/adapt them/evolve them in the spirit of FOSS. One cannot just change his mind over a license . Free is free (provided that the interesting material is also FSS) So to hell with what he wants. If the license is free, I say we use the stuf!! (even as a template for better documentation)
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Maybe is time for Manuel to organize new ideas an take a break to clean the mind for the next step of his life. he donated a lot years for free in developing this tool. nearly 20 years without earn money, there is people capable to come rich with YouTube and other not born for business.
We are people of honor.
We won’t do anything Manuel don’t want us to do.
However we are in the best disposition to help him get financial support for his hard, invaluable work, and ultimately to let him live off that work.
I hope soon all parts involved reach an agreement, also, I hope if that is not possible and its Manuel’s will that his files won’t be distributed anymore in any, that the Blender community learns from this and also, that the contribution model of open source projects in general could be, economically non viable, putting too much stress in certain individuals without compensateing them fairly.
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it’d be easier if he talked to us
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