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List:       kde-policies
Subject:    Re: Proposal for P2P disclaimer text
From:       Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date:       2004-03-15 14:46:02
Message-ID: 4055C1AA.3E3B623 () mieterra ! com
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Marc Mutz wrote:
> 
> On Sunday 14 March 2004 20:59, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > Just don't expect any sympathy or support if you end up in court due
> > to your own negligence.
> 
> Your comment is completely beside the point.
> 
> Well, if NoSE wants to pay lawyers to scan hundreds and thousands of
> patents for whether or not KMail infringes on any one of them, so be
> it. I doubt it. I for one lack the financial support needed for this,
> and even if I didn't, I'd think of it as a waste of resources.

Earlier you had written:

| 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.

In case you have not been paying attention to current events, the RIAA is suing
a number of people for P2P file sharing.  They have sued hundreds of
defendants.  This isn't just some patent hypothetical - or do you mean, we
should wait until the KDE project is shut down, before reacting to legal threats
to the project?

> As I said, disclaimers such as those presented here can do more harm
> than help.

Said and proven / convinced is another issue.  If someone will not use KDE P2P
software b/c they want to unlawfully copy music and the license restriction
interferes with their "freedom" to do so, so be it.

> It's quite hard to convince a judge of their validity if
> they disclaim stuff you knew beforehand. They raise the impression that
> you only tried to cover your ass with them, not stand to them.

I don't see how whether you agree with the law or not has any bearing.  The
issue one needs to worry about is "contributory infringement", which has a
certain legal meaning, and whether or not in your heart of hearts you think that
copyright law is good or bad for society is another issue.
 
> And that is exactly the case here. It's like distancing yourself from
> warez sites and at the same time maintaining a warez link list.

I don't see the similarity.  If KDE encourages unlawful use then such
encouragement should immediately stop.  Perhaps you are projecting your use of
the software onto others?

Ciao,

Dre
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