[kde-community] Using software created by KDE and KDE-related communities/companies for KDE infrastructure

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Tuesday 16 September 2014 16:31:23 Ingo Klöcker wrote:
> I'm replying to Aaron's and Thomas's message.
> 
> > On Monday 15 September 2014 16:24:55 Aleix Pol wrote:
> > > - Kollab: This was already discussed recently in this list, it
> > > doesn't seem feasible to offer a Kollab instance to the membership
> > > (let alone the whole community) so I don't think we want to depend
> > > on it. That said, We might want to ensure we have all the tools to
> > > use the standards we can rely on, then ensure Kollab is capable to
> > > interact with them, given it's one of the few platforms we could
> > > have a say.
> 
> On Monday 15 September 2014 20:11:32 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
> > Given that Kolab will power the whole of Munich administration soon, I
> > wonder why it wouldn't work for the - big, but still tiny compared to
> > that - KDE community, but I am not an admin (I really should
> > establish the IANAA and IANAD acronyms), so I may totally miss the
> > difference. Would it require massive server or bandwidth resources
> > which we don't have?
> 
> No, the problem is not technical, but legal. If we (resp. the KDE e.V.
> as our legal representative) would host a Kolab instance then the KDE
> e.V. would most likely become an email provider (according to German
> law). And being an email provider in Germany comes with lots of legal
> requirements and responsibilities.

Oh damn, legalities... So what's the difference between an organization using 
a groupware internally and an email provider, from the legal perspective? 
Read: Could we restrict the access to an account on our server in a way that 
would not legally make us an email provider?

> On Monday 15 September 2014 20:04:45 Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > I'm sure we can work sth out with Kolab Systems.
> 
> Not sure what you mean. AFAIK, nothing needs to be worked out with Kolab
> Systems. We need to get the ball rolling, not Kolab Systems.
> 
> If we want to use MyKolab.com: About 3 months ago Georg Greve has sent a
> message to the KDE e.V. mailing list (sorry, this list is restricted to
> KDE e.V. members) with a special offer for KDE people who want to use
> Kolab Systems' MyKolab.com.

While the MyKolab special offer is greatly appreciated, it would not help us 
as an organization, because we'd still not have shared calendars or a 
centralized address book.
 
> OTOH, if we want to host our own Kolab instance (which we probably do
> not want to do because see above) then I don't see what needs to be
> worked out with Kolab Systems.

Well, maybe them helping us to set up Kolab on our infrastructure in case we 
have difficulties with that.