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List:       kde-policies
Subject:    Re: Proposal for P2P disclaimer text
From:       Marc Mutz <mutz () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-03-14 19:39:34
Message-ID: 200403142039.47895.mutz () kde ! org
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On Saturday 13 March 2004 19:15, Petter E. Stokke wrote:
> WARNING!
>
> Peer-to-peer networks such as those which the software KMLDonkey
> provides access to may contain material for which you may not have
> the legal right to download or redistribute. It is your own
> responsibility to verify that your use of this software does not
> violate the copyright or intellectual property laws of the relevant
> jurisdictions.
>
> The authors of this software do not encourage or support the use of
> said software to violate copyright or intellectual property laws, and
> cannot be held responsible for any such use.

I am worried.

We are writing Free Software, software that preserves our freedom. We 
should not be so bold as to try to take this freedom from our users. 
This warning is close to the edge, the text Andreas proposed way over 
it, IMO.

Trying actively to follow every damn law that is anywhere in the world, 
will just lead to more and more crippleware. This is the beginning. 
When will we require frontends for dvd copying to reject copying of 
CSS-encrypted material, although there's no need to decrypt the content 
to copy it?

It's much better to just ignore legal issues (esp. when you can't be 
seriously expected to perfrom exhausting research, e.g. w.r.t. patents) 
until they come up, and deal with them, then.

These disclaimers are void anyway if there is doubt that they were meant 
in earnest (such as the curious German practise of proactively 
distancing from the content of linked-to site - why do we link to them, 
then? - there was an article about this in c't or iX recently). I think 
this type of "WARNING" falls within the same category and thus can't 
protect KDE from the legal issues anyway.

Which brings me back to the point of ignoring legal issues until they 
come up.

Marc

-- 
It is truly ironic that the United States, once the beacon for
promoting the principles of freedom of expression, is now
systematically infecting other countries with this dangerous public
policy choice [the DMCA] that will restrict more speech than any law
before it.    -- EFF FTAA Alert:
                 Stop Hollywood Forcing Technology Ban on 34 Countries

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