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KDE League .... Inc. No Longer?
An anonymous reader writes "The corporate status of the KDE League, Inc., was revoked earlier this year by the Delaware Secretary of State when it failed to file necessary papers and pay fees, according to this report in Linux and Main. In addition, the organization seems to have overlooked financial disclosures that are supposed to be made public under federal law. And asked about it, the KDE League's chairman, Andreas Pour, refused to comment." Update: You can read a statement from Andreas here that explains what's going on. Thanks to Thomas Zander for the update.
Try to change the default way that KDE League, Inc does paperwork.
Get a free ipod.
The Delaware folks are Gnome fans...
The corporate status of the KDE League, Inc., was revoked earlier this year by the Delaware Secretary of State when it failed to file necessary papers and pay fees
Now if only Microsoft would forget to file some paperwork and pay a few fees.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
In better news, KDE 3.1 beta2 is out!
Anyways, the KDE league is and was never tied to KDE itself. KDE does not tie itself to any particular commercial groups (except KDE e.V.).
So, if the KDE league is really down, it doesn't hurt KDE either way. In the end, open source software goes on. I'd like a comment from Dre (Andreas Pour), before I jump to any conclusions.
I reserve this trust in him because he's always done a phenominal job as one of the KDE project's PR guys.
You want a comment from Dre:
here it is
The story is just more LinuxAndMain FUD about KDE
No, KDE e.V. owns the KDE trademark.
See http://www.kde.org/kde-ev/
Posted on the kde-core-devel list:
& file=article&sid=247
I think it clears everything up. The kde-league is *not* dead. The website, linuxandmain, just seemed to have jumped the gun a bit before getting a serious comment from Andreas Pour.
And life and KDE goes on..
List: kde-core-devel
Subject: Re: What has happened to the KDE League?
From: Andreas Pour
Date: 2002-10-05 7:34:38
[Download message RAW]
Shawn Gordon wrote:
>
> http://www.linuxandmain.com/modules.php?name=News
>
> Is this true?
Parts of it. As to the dissolution issue, that is something that needs to be
straightened out with the League's lawyers, who are supposed to be handling
this, undoubtedly some clerical mix-up. However, as dep wrote to me in a
private e-mail (so he knows this), and as is the case, this is easily remedied
and virtually inconsequential.
As to the supposed IRS from, since theKompany.com was briefly a member, you
should know that the League is not a non-profit but rather a not-for-profit and
hence need not file the forms.
As to the website, it's hosted on a server that experienced hardware failure and
should be back up early next week.
As to the finances, that is not something for me to disclose. The League as a
corporation cannot release its financial statements without approval of the
members, and that approval has not occurred. That came out in the threads which
were selectively quoted, IIRC, but the piece seems to be just another malicious
KDE attack by a website well versed in those matters.
> If it is true then the League is beyond a colossal failure,
It certainly is not.
> it is also engaging in illegal activity.
Sorry?
> KDE really needs to get some
> spokes people together and have something in place to handle this kind of
> fall out. I wonder if this post will even make it through Dre's filters on me.
What filter?
Ciao,
Dre
The corporate status of the KDE League, Inc., was revoked earlier this year
In a press release, KDE employees stated: "Ah Krap!"
Rather than comment myself, why not hear what Andreas Pour said today?
To Whom It May Concern,
Please convey my/our heartfelt apologies to the KDE League for this mix up. As many of you are aware, many corporations are headquartered in Delaware due to our tax laws and court system. This creates a burden on Delaware residents. In fact it creates a burden on all three Delaware residents. Just yesterday, I was talking with Ed, and he was trying his damndest (as usual) to attract a fourth resident, and he thought that some Linux news might be a good idea, since 'maybe we could get Delaware slashdotted,' and I had to remind him that Delaware already serves an honorable place in Slashdot as the dot.
We were further upset recently when we realized that our third resident, the governor, had died in 1973.
In closing, please accept the apologies of Ed and myself on behalf of the great state of Delaware -- the first state to sign the Constitution and the state that nearly everyone has 'driven through on the way to visit their parents.'
Let me start off by saying that I am a KDE user; I prefer it strongly over GNOME.
However, there's no FUD in this article. We all would like to know what happened to the KDE League. It simply disappeared. The fact is, while the GNOME Foundation actually got together and formed a consortium, and produced results (look at how much Sun's involvement did, for example), the KDE League appeared out of nowhere as a sort of "me too" thing, and then disappeared just as fast.
KDE is a terrific desktop. I use it every day, at home and at work. But the fact of the matter is, KDE is a "cathedral" project. Most people who have observed its development have arrived at this conclusion.
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A Delaware franchise tax report is is a blue slip of paper about 8.5 inches wide and 4 inches high. Every year a Delaware corporation is required to complete the report by filling in the names of the company's officers, its address and the number and par value of its authorized shares (e.g., "the corporation is authorized to issue up to 1000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share") -- that's about it. The franchise tax is computed based on the aggregate par value of the common stock (in my example, $10 = 1000 x $0.01). The franchise tax is _not_ an income tax and the report does not require reporting of a company's income or activities. The franchise tax assessible on even a large corporation is relatively modest -- this is one of the reasons Delaware is a desireable state to charter a corporation. As the Linux and Main article itself (which was a real hachet job) said, the KDE League's franchise tax owed was $20.
Forgetting to file a franchise tax report is a very common error. The Delaware Secretary of State's office sends the report form to the last known address, and if the address of the company has changed or, if the particular person at the company does not recognize that the uninteresting-looking envelope contains important information, it is easy to overlook it. Failure to file the report, even to the point of becoming terminated by the Delaware Secretary of State's office, tells me little about the KDE League.
You may or may not know this but dep (the author of this "article") has a problem with KDE. Basically here's what happened (I posted this on the Linuxtoday.com article about this as well):
1. KDE hosts an off-topic mailinglist (kde-cafe). There KDE-developers and users can talk about off-topic things (movies, politics etc.)
2. One KDE-developer (I don't remember which one) posted a message where he criticized Israel policies when it comes to the palestinians. He also voiced concern regarding some US policies as well.
3. Dep got involved in that discussion and he held an opposing viewpoint. During the course of the discussion he basically called everyone who disagreed with him and idiot.
4. He also decided that anyone who criticizes Israel is a nazi and an antisemite.
5. He then wrote a story for Linux and main where he claimed that several KDE core-developers are nazis and antisemites.
6. In reality, few KDE-developers simply criticized some of Israels policies in an off-topic mailinglist. That does not make them in to nazis.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.