I've thought of that, but how do I integrate that with the CPAN.pm installation process when I want the default to be not to do it?

Actually, thinking about it, I might provide an additional distribution whose installation always downloads the file, containing a stub module whose presence is detected by this one.

Then a bundle which installs both distributions would solve things nicely. You either fire-and-forget CPAN.pm at the bundle or just get this module alone.

How does that sound?

Makeshifts last the longest.