Re: Proposal for P2P disclaimer text

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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=20
should not be so bold as to try to take this freedom from our users.=20
This warning is close to the edge, the text Andreas proposed way over=20
it, IMO.

Trying actively to follow every damn law that is anywhere in the world,=20
will just lead to more and more crippleware. This is the beginning.=20
When will we require frontends for dvd copying to reject copying of=20
CSS-encrypted material, although there's no need to decrypt the content=20
to copy it?

It's much better to just ignore legal issues (esp. when you can't be=20
seriously expected to perfrom exhausting research, e.g. w.r.t. patents)=20
until they come up, and deal with them, then.

These disclaimers are void anyway if there is doubt that they were meant=20
in earnest (such as the curious German practise of proactively=20
distancing from the content of linked-to site - why do we link to them,=20
then? - there was an article about this in c't or iX recently). I think=20
this type of "WARNING" falls within the same category and thus can't=20
protect KDE from the legal issues anyway.

Which brings me back to the point of ignoring legal issues until they=20
come up.

Marc

=2D-=20
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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