P2P file sharing software in KDE's CVS

[Charles de Miramon]

Le Samedi 13 Septembre 2003 18:02, Ralf Nolden a écrit :
> I'd like to remind that the KDE Project per se cannot be sued directly -
> the KDE e.V. is the only legal entity that could be sued or the individual
> authors directly. As the KDE e.V. is not responsible for the code rather
> than being a support organization, who should be sued if not the individual
> developers ? (and in that case it's *much* more likely that companies like
> Adobe for instance who already did that with killustrator, approach the
> companies that make their money with KDE software, i.e. the distributors,
> though that doesn't mean we shouldn't be acting responsible enough to not
> cause the distributors any trouble).
>

Well, they could sue the physical owner of the main CVS server (if I remember 
right a German University) or target a specific individual like the release 
manager. Another legal solution, would be to convince the judge that KDE ev 
is, de facto, controlling the KDE project, even if, de iure, it says the 
contrary, a mechanism commonly used in French law to sue people that have 
taken a legal status just to escape taxes or liabilities. The chance that KDE 
ev get condamned, at least in European law, is extremely slim. KDE ev will 
not make any profit out of KMLDonkey and it will be very farfetched to prove 
that by providing the source of KMLDonkey, KDE is actively promoting piracy 
and breaking public order.

Your point on distributions is a valid one. If we have "grey" software in 
KDExtragear we can make life more difficult for KDE packagers. For Mandrake, 
MLDonkey packages are in the Penguin Liberation Front repository a unofficial 
repository, I guess logically KMLDonkey should go there and not in the 
official package of  KDExtragear. 

Taking KMLDonkey out of the CVS won't be a tragedy for the program. Their user 
base is smart and computer wise enough to google to the new downloading 
location. On the other hand, it would be rather unpolite to show them the 
door just when we accepted them in.

Cheers,
Charles
-- 
cmiramon at kde-france.org
http://www.kde-france.org