[tor-dev] Changes to accessing and using MaxMind's databases

[Karsten Loesing]

Hi!

When trying to update tor's geoip databases the other day I found that
MaxMind's GeoLite2 database is not available for download anymore. The
reason is:

https://blog.maxmind.com/2019/12/18/significant-changes-to-accessing-and-using-geolite2-databases/

We do not have a MaxMind account (yet). As of now, we cannot update
tor's geoip files nor the files used by Onionoo.

Should we try to get somebody who knows more about licenses and legal
stuff to review their GeoLite2 EULA and tell us if it's okay for us to
sign up for a MaxMind account? A possible downside would be that whoever
wants to verify that we didn't mess with their database when converting
it to our format would have to sign up for an account, too.

An alternative is to find another, truly open data source than MaxMind
databases (#25542, #26585). However, this could eat up more time than we
currently have available, and we should have something ready in a few
weeks from now. I'm not sure how we would squeeze this into the metrics
team schedule, so we might need help with this.

Thoughts on the two alternatives? What else did I miss?

All the best,
Karsten

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