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

[Mirko Boehm]

Hi,

On 09/17/2014 10:12 AM, Ben Cooksley wrote:
>> 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?
> From what I recall, if we offered it solely only to members of the eV

... or even to contributors to our community, as long as it is not the
general public...

> then we were able to escape the email provider provisions. Someone
> from the board can comment more clearly on that.

That is correct, and that is why I always had trouble understanding this
worry. KDE (e.V.) does not become an email provider by offering email
services only to its community members. Every company does that without
becoming an email provider. And I think we should not offer email
services to people that are not in our community, there are plenty of
other services for that.

That does not mean we should necessarily run an email server ourselves,
if for example Kolab's hosted services would work for us (they should).
It means there is no legal regulation that prevents us from doing so.

In general, please keep in mind that an "e.V." for most practical
matters stands like a shareholders company (Aktiengesellschaft) where
each member has one share. The regulations for those are very much
focused on getting stuff done, but correctly. 95% of all "German law
makes it impossible to do X" is hence FUD if any company can do X ;-)
The remaining 5% is just handling the bureaucracy the right way. And
keeping in mind that we are a not-for-profit operation.

Cheers,

Mirko.
-- 
Mirko Boehm | mirko at kde.org | KDE e.V.
FSFE Fellow, FSFE Team Germany
Qt Certified Specialist and Trainer