Re: Neil's Newsforge article

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On Monday 08 September 2003 09:25, Timothy R. Butler wrote:
>   I would agree it might not have been the best way of doing things if the
> site was completely down (was it?). Normally one might have a "splash page"
> for something like this before going into the normal page.

it was a splash page with a link to the real kde.org ... unfortunately it had 
an auto-redirect after something like 20seconds to the main protest page, 
which even some who agreed with the splash page protest didn't particularly 
appreciate.

> > If it turns out the Iranian government hinders KDE development in that

>   The problem is, how directly does Iranian policy relate to KDE? We can't
> simply say, okay, 100 would-be KDE developers are not KDE developers
> because of Iranian policy. We can say, if software patents continue to grow
> as they have been, it is quite likely that it will become increasingly
> challenging to develop Free Software.

right.. there's a difference between the Product itself and the people making 
it.

> > The "this affects KDE directly" argument is a very subjective one. In the
> > end, most of us probably own a credit to our countries including the
> > people, culture and governments in it.
>
>   Sure. I suspect crediting the people and government of the United States
> would have been less controversial than crediting the Army.

not by much. it's simply innapropriate IMHO, unless you are getting funding 
from them as, for instance, the OpenBSD project was.

>   That probably would bring a lot less problems... Of course, another issue
> is Neil's intentions themselves, based on his comments on the subject, it
> looks like he intended this as flamebait. If it was intended as flamebait,
> it should have been removed without thought, whereas the software patents
> thing was not meant as flamebait (clearly).

exactly.

>   I think a good rule would be whatever views are agreeable to the vast
> majority of the KDE developers and can be practically shown to have a
> profound impact on the development of KDE.

emphasis on "development of KDE".. it's what affects/effects the PRODUCT; not 
the people, the PRODUCT. that is a difference not everyone sees clearly: that 
there is a product here that needs protecting and representing, the people 
are not the issue.
 
>   At a glance, patents = yes

yes, because it has a role to play in the future of the entire product

>   US Army = kinda sorta maybe. 

for a few developers, and not the product itself, and even then arguably no 
more / less so than their local grocer.

besides, if we open that floodgate i can only imagine who or what people like 
Zack might thank in the credits. perhaps his shapely ass. ;-)

- -- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
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