Questions Continue About The KDE League

OrangeSpyderMan writes "Here is a further piece by Dennis E. Powell ("DEP"), the other is an editorial, submitted simply by "staff". They make interesting reading, and add a lot of info to the story previously reported Of particular insterest is an apparent clarification of the tax status of the league, which, if anything, serves to complicate a little further the true role of the league, as the editorial goes on to explain. Basically the "staff" appear to wonder if it wouldn't have been more productive to give the $170,000 that the League appears to have collected (or be owed) directly to the KDE project."

Comments

Sad

[e8johan]

It is sad that the KDE project has to be associated with such business practice. I feel that this can bring down the credibility for the project, which is not only bad for KDE, but for the entire open source movement.

Re:Black Eye....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hopefully this will just be an ugly incident that gets resolved and forgotten."

Resolved yes, forgotten no!
Aren't we supposed to learn from history?

Re:Deps original article re: KDE, Israel + Palesti

[SubtleNuance]

Anti-Zionism != Anti-Semitism.

Beliving that a Jewish State should not exist is not the same as being prejudiced or against people solely on their religion.

This is slightly OT, but i would like to make this point. I am 100% against the idea that ANY religion should/could be involved in governing any nation - I am not simply an advocate of secular governance - I belive that MY OWN SECULAR GOVERNMENT (in this case Canada) should not have relations (other than to advocate the end of Religious-Rule) with any Non-Secular state; Isreal or any other. Religion, being a matter of mythos of a local geography is no way to govern ones-self. To legitimize fairy-tales preached by Jews, Christians, Hindus or Muslims is ultimately counter productive. If Non-Secular states, in this case Isreal, cannot discover Liberty and Enlightenment enough to assume responsibility for ones own community -- as opposed to letting the will of The One True Lord(TM) govern them -- then I dont believe they deserve a place in the discussions of the modern world.

So, to conclude - People who believe that the Isreali state sucks ass (simply) dont necessarily have a particular dislike for Jews - the two issues are different. If a bigot (nazi) also happens to hold negative views of Isreal's nonsecular nature it is a seperate issue..

Further (i can smell the OT coming ;) ) I personally believe ALL RELIGION in ALL FORMS sucks ass (simply - you dont want me to ramble too much do you?) - ALL religion shouldnt be supported by the state, as in grants to non-secular groups, tax breaks, property-tax-free properties, relations with their 'leaders' etc etc etc.

Nice move, dep

[back_pages]

I previously had no experience with LinuxandMain. This fiasco has firmly convinced me that the site is a sensationalist gossip haven. I will certainly laugh whenever anyone uses the site or its contributors as a reference.

Somehow, I think this was not the type of publicity LinuxandMain wanted to stir up. Unfortunately for them, the damage is done. I really couldn't care if the KDE League has been less than admirable in their business practices. The unprofessional hack job that LinuxandMain has done on this story is the only thing I'm going to remember about it.

Flamebait? Sure, maybe. Maybe I'm just offering a clue to anyone over at LinuxandMain that the potential audience for a Linux website is slightly more critical and clever than the average tabloid reader. Edward Said was right. The media is self-serving and self-perpetuating, but that doesn't mean that smart people won't see through it.

Re:Nice move, dep

[jrfonseca]

I know that it may be difficult to KDE enthusiasts to dissociate the KDE project from this endeavor called 'KDE League'. And spite of all second intentions that many of the slashdot posters argue Dennis E. Powel and LinuxandMain have, the fact is that they are doing a tremendous service to the community, especialy the supportive KDE fans which seem to have been the most damaged party in all this story.

Since the begining that many people admired and feared the community spirit surrounding Linux and other popular open-source projects as KDE. But we can't forget that many tried and will try to make use of this community spirit for their own gain. That's why transparency should be praised, instead of being considered as an attack to the good name. , because transparency is the _only_ way to have a respectable image.

In contrary to your opinion, what I'll remember of this will be danger that these fund-raising Leagues/Foundations can be if their business model and intents aren't properly open.

Re:Nice move, dep

[Dr. Smeegee]

Somehow, I think this was not the type of publicity LinuxandMain wanted to stir up.

I must disagree- this is precisely the sort of publicity that caginess and (apparent) featherbedding should draw.

The questions these articles raise are perfectly legitimate: What does the KDE League intend to accomplish? How is it moving toward it's stated goals? Are the actions taken redundant or in contradiction to the goals and aspirations of the Open Source community? Would the money raised be better spent directly by the humans developing the code?

I really couldn't care if the KDE League has been less than admirable in their business practices.

Why in the world not? It seems to me that this is the central focus- is this business that has taken the name of a Community an effective, focused, representative of that Community?

The unprofessional hack job that LinuxandMain has done on this story is the only thing I'm going to remember about it.

Try rereading it and make an attempt to glean the actual data from the articles. Focusing exclusively on a writers stylistic deficiencies is like saying that Richard Feynman had nothing relevant to say because he had a `tik Neuw Yawhk Akscent.

soon to come on linux and main

[imr]

1/ what did ximian do with the 15 millions $ ?
2/ gnome developper heard to dislike the color "black" (to use on an icon) - probably KKK member.
3/ usage of windowmaker linked with active trolling group - undercover anarcho-terrorrists?
4/ creator of enlightenment drop his project - probably to escape fbi.
5/ linux and main just bought by unknkown megacorp of redmond . soon to be renamed.

Re:Deps original article re: KDE, Israel + Palesti

[SubtleNuance]

I completely agree. Isreal is treating Palestinians as the USA once treated Africans... worse even. How the champion of Liberty -- as embodied in their Constitution not the Plutocratic-Fascism that the USofA has become -- can support Isreal is VERY telling of how far they've gone from the ideas that they fought a revolution for...

Re:Alright, about the article itself:

[Hope Thelps]

Well, dep is associating the League with the KDE project, and he himself knows the difference between the two. But, nonetheless, it is a valid point. In dre's response, he said that the league was "not-for-profit", and not "non-profit".

Can someone with experience in US law explain the difference, if any between the two? I'm still confused about this fact.

I'm not experienced in US law, so that probably doesn't help much :) but as far as I can tell from what the two sides are saying, the distinction they're making is :

Non-profit : special status granted by the federal government, grants immunity from taxes (or at least some special status with respect to taxes) but carries extra requirements, including additional disclosures. This would typically be used by charities (or maybe can only be used by charities)

Not-for-profit : just like any other company, but it doesn't trade or otherwise make a profit (and isn't intended to) so although it's liable to taxation in theory, in practice it doesn't have any taxable income. So in this case, I guess the idea is the company takes contributions from its members and spends those contributions on the things that the members are contributing them for, i.e. promoting KDS (or not). Any money left over the members are still entitled to. The company isn't charging outsiders for a service in order to generate a profit, so on no profit there's no tax.

That's my non-expert understanding of what they're saying.