Go ahead and make maven-deploy publish locally unless otherwise directed.

build.xml

@@ -153,11 +153,9 @@
              alias="${sign.alias}" keypass="${sign.keypass}"/>
   </target>
 
+  <property name="maven.deploy.repo" value="file://${user.home}/.m2/repository"/>
   <target name="maven-deploy" depends="dist" 
           description="Deploys our build artifacts to a Maven repository.">
-    <fail unless="maven.deploy.repo">
-      Must specify Maven repository with -Dmaven.deploy.repo=file://somepath
-    </fail>
     <artifact:deploy file="${deploy.dir}/${ant.project.name}.jar" uniqueVersion="false">
       <remoteRepository url="${maven.deploy.repo}"/>
       <pom refid="pom"/>