From kde-policies  Fri Sep 12 16:23:46 2003
From: Ralf Nolden <nolden () kde ! org>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 16:23:46 +0000
To: kde-policies
Subject: Re: P2P file sharing software in KDE's CVS
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On Friday 12 September 2003 17:44, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> On Friday 12 September 2003 16:07, Scott Wheeler wrote:
> > All of this said, I may be in the minority opinion, if so I would still
> > like to see some clear stand on this.  Please in the discussion try to
> > avoid, "It's not illegal or immoral and it saved my life" type of
> > arguments.  I'd like to keep simple -- risk vs. benefit.
>
> There are risks associated with all code in KDE, in the form of copyright
> misrepresentation, patent infringement and trademark violations.
>
> I think the primary guiding principal in all these cases should be the
> desire to stay within the law.
>
> P2P file sharing software is not very much different from other software
> used to publish information such as ftp and http clients and servers. I
> suspect that your concerns are based on the fear that P2P file sharing
> software will be used by our users to illegally distribute copyrighted
> works and that you fear that KDE will be liable for contributory copyright
> infringement.
>
> Although that can't be ruled out, just like copyright misrepresentation,
> patent infringement or trademark violations can't be ruled out, we can do=
 a
> reasonable effort to ensure that KDE stays within the law.
>
> In particular, I think that:
> * KDE should not ship software for which no legitimate/legal use exists.
> * KDE should not encourage/link/suggest to its users to engage in
> illegitimate/illegal activities.
> * KDE may wish to advice its users about the possible impact of certain
> activities in cases where that may not be directly clear to a non-technic=
al
> user. (e.g. we warn a user about possible privacy concerns when he/she is
> about to send data to babelfish for translation.)
>
> As long as the above is taken into account I do not see any reasons not to
> ship P2P software.

I agree with that. Though, I think kmldonkey is a program that actually, du=
e=20
to the public use of edonkey, promotes file sharing that is "highly=20
suspectable" for copyright violations by non-technical users (as well as=20
technical ones).

I think with regard to P2P software for desktops a publishing system across=
=20
the network is not too bad if it's completely decentralized and can work wi=
th=20
network scans rather than relying  on connections to a server. That way,=20
offices can make good use of P2P software - imagine contracts, bills and so=
=20
forth that can be simply shared from anywhere within your private network i=
n=20
your office with some nice folder management, plus network transparency wou=
ld=20
make them appear like local files even if they're on someone else's compute=
r.=20
Sharing such files makes much sense because you may want to access a file b=
ut=20
if it's only available at some secretary's computer and that computer is of=
f=20
it will take you a while to access that. So I think in that respect it's=20
getting more into the direction of document management systems working on t=
he=20
basis of p2p ideas.

Ralf

>
> Cheers,
> Waldo

=2D-=20
We're not a company, we just produce better code at less costs.
=2D-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralf Nolden
nolden@kde.org

The K Desktop Environment       The KDevelop Project
http://www.kde.org              http://www.kdevelop.org

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