The project distribution toggle is all about providing authors control over their intellectual property and revenue generated from their awesome creations.
The toggle is part of the new CurseForge API, and determines if 3rd party developers can or cannot redistribute your project information and files.
What does this mean for authors?
In short - each project owner can choose if the project can be distributed over 3rd party services.
It's important you are aware of 2 things:
- If you turn this option off Any 3rd-party service, website or client will not have access to your projects or files via the 3rd-party API.
- If you turn this option on any download from the 3rd party service will not count towards your total downloads nor towards your Reward Program earnings.
How can I manage my distribution preferences?
Easy - at first we're going to prompt all project owners when entering an existing project. Simply click the 'Go to License Tab' button and you'll be transferred to the relevant tab.
You can also access this tab by entering the project page > 'Manage Project' > 'License'.
Once there, you can view or change the distribution setting. Don't forget to hit 'Save Changes' when you're done! You can always change your choice later on.
As a default, all existing projects have the option toggled on and allow distribution.
What about new projects?
We're adding the toggle setting in the submission panel as well ('Create a Project' page), where you can determine an initial choice for the project.
We recommend choosing a license preference that is compatible with your distribution choice. In any case - the API will respect the toggle choice over the license type choice.
You will need to choose when creating your project if to turn this toggle on or off.
I'm not the project owner - do I have access to the toggle as well?
Only project owners and members with the 'license' permission enabled can view the License tab when over-viewing a project.