"When he added a line crediting the United States Army to four
of his applications, Neil Stevens created a small storm in the KDE
community; politics, people said, was not to interfere with KDE,
and his credit was removed. However, when the KDE Web site took
part in the online protest against software patents in Europe,
people said politics was important to KDE. So what role does
politics play in KDE, and in Free Software in general?
"Denying that politics can play any part in Free Software is of
course absurd. Politics is not confined to a few officials in
suits, it is part of the fabric of life. When I consume goods, I
tacitly accept that the companies involved in the production of
those goods are acceptable to me, or rather that their practices
are acceptable; when I use Free Software, I make a political
statement about my thoughts on copyright law, software development
methods, and perhaps a little of my ethics..."
