I've updated as many dist.plone.org version.cfgs as possible (there are some permissions issues preventing me from touching the rest, but I've contacted the admin team for help on that).
We'll push out the next 4.3.x release once the hotfix patches have all been merged.
Permissions issue has been fixed. All of the cfgs are updated. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.
I wonder if the Plone fondation plans to get the zope.org (at least) under its control.
If I understand correctly, the domain will be available on 28 november 2018 (unless someone from the Zope foundation turns out and renews or transfers the domain)
At this time, anyone could buy this domain, and could also theoretically setup a new download.zope.org server. This is a bit worrying since references to this site will live for a long time on many computers.
An simple example: I have downloaded recently the ansible recipe for plone (git clone https://github.com/plone/ansible-playbook), setup a test server with it, and I could see in the buildout.log that the download.zope.org was referenced because I had included a plone stanza in the local-configure.yml file, so Ansible somehow (no idea how) has pulled the ansible.plone_server playbook that contained (at the time) a reference to these servers in the templates/buildout.cfg.j2 file.
Now, I have done a git pull and the local repository has been updated.
However if I try to setup a new server using the cloned project on my computer, I still get
Download error on https://download.zope.org/ppix/: [Errno -2] Name or service not known -- Some packages may not be found!
Download error on https://download.zope.org/distribution/: [Errno -2] Name or service not known -- Some packages may not be found!
in the buildout.log
even when the plone_server project on github has been updated to remove the download.zope.org references.
It seems that ansible is not git and the locally updated project don't know that the sub project plone_server has to be updated.
Again this is just an exemple.
And I am not sure at all that the idea of rotten eggs on a zombie download.zope.org is a real worry.
Thank you!
We are trying, yes. Thanks for raising the issue!
if all fails there may be a way with pir.org.
They are supposed to act 'in the public interest'. I don't know if they can override registrars in special cases though.
If it's really possible to do that, please go for it.
We're still waiting to hear back from the registrant.