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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Software Patents in Europe
From:       Dirk Mueller <mueller () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-04-08 11:22:50
Message-ID: 200404081322.50009.mueller () kde ! org
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Dear KDE contributors, 

There is a 2nd Online Demo against Software patents running right now, and I 
think KDE should take part of it. 

Many parts of KDE would be directly affected by Software patents. Consider 
progress bars for example. Would you like to use a piece of software that 
does not have progress bars? There are many such patents directly affecting 
our project. 

While they don't impose immediate legal danger, they would imply legal 
uncertainty, a great danger for Free Software and more importantly, a huge 
financial risk for Free Software Developers. 

I'm planning on adding a temporary protest banner on the frontpage of 
www.kde.org. You can see how it would look here: 

http://dirk.mueller.name/kde/

Since such a controversial commit would most likely be reverted if not 
discussed before, and since that would be even worse than not participating 
at all, I'd hereby like to ask you to agree on adding this banner until April 
15th. 

If you have valid concerns against adding such a banner, please share them 
with me. If you're looking for a way to start a flame, go somewhere else. 

Thanks in advance,

Dirk

(I'm aware that I used my mueller@kde.org email address for writing this 
mail).
 
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