As mentioned, I am deeply concerned about the unprovoked and illegal Russian war against now not only Ukraine, but also potentially Moldova and NATO.
The rhetoric’s are simply completely unacceptable.
Since our software (specially kbmMW) can be considered dual use software, I have now restricted access to our portal for Russian users.
It is a very unfortunate, but necessary step, with only one part being responsible for the current security situation on the world stage, namely Russia, that employs a policy of killing and hurting innocent civilians and impose unreasonable costs on the shoulders of Ukraine and the rest of the world.
I am aware that many civilian people within Russia, obviously also including Delphi developers, may be against the hostilities imposed by their homeland, and that this decision will affect hundreds of honest, hardworking and reasonably minded Delphi developers.
But I unfortunately can’t legally nor morally sit back and ignore what is going on.
The existing 600+ Russian registered users have now been blocked from the download portal.
New users will no longer be offered any variation of kbmMW as a download, including the free variants, but can request access to kbmMW CodeGear/Community Edition and kbmMW Remote Desktop which will be granted after scrutiny of the request.
If you are living within Russia, your request will be denied.
If you do not provide complete registration and contact information, your request will be denied.
If you provide an email address that effectively is anonymous, your request will be denied.
When Russia stops the hostilities towards peaceful countries, and normal relations can be established again, I am sure that dual use software again to some extent can flow to Russia. Until then, I am sorry.
I am continuing to be in awe and respect for the Russians within Russia and the Belarusian’s within Belarusia that have the courage to stand up against the war in Ukraine, and I really wish for those to succeed in bringing back a Russia that is governed by fairness and respect for humans rather than what you have right now.
I am hoping for a quick return to normality!
With due respect Kim Bo Madsen / Components4Developers
Nice bro, you nailed those Ruski programers! DId you do the same for the American delphi programwea for the wars in Iraq 1 and 2, Afghanistan, Lybia, Kosovo, Syria, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Gulf, Panama, Tanker, Pakistan, Uganda, Somalli, Yemen, VIetnam, Korea, Lebanon, Cambodia, Dominican, Pig Bay, Laoti, Yemen …the orange revolutions, the arabs springs. the list is big dude.
Here we go again….
Hi Stefan,
Did you read the blog post?
Did you understand it all, or only the parts you want to understand?
When exactly did “American” (I suppose you mean USA) threaten with levelling the EU or NATO or my home country?
Please indulge me in my seek for an answer for that particular question!
Obviously not, since the USA is an strategic and historic ally. Still doesn’t stop them from spying on European politicians…
But yup, the US of A did mess a lot of countries up during and more so after WW2. As usual the real reason has always to do with resources and border protection. Same with Ukraine really. Just a bit closer to home.
I have been asked (by non Russians) about making a full refund for current paid subscriptions since there will be no access to new versions.
As the subscriptions are running at different offsets (each customer has his own purchase date), I will not refund the purchases, as the products has already been in the hands of the end users for a period of time.
Also remember that not all 600+ customers has current subscriptions, and many are free riders using our free tools.
However I have decided, so there will be no wrongful speculation, to simply take the income for the current subscriptions and donate to Ukraine via the UN donation program I have advocated for in previous posts.
As the current situation is a result of decisions by Russia, I feel no obligation towards Russia.
I do feel a professional sadness about the users in Russia who never wanted the war in the first place, and who are now going to suffer from it.
Most of their suffering will not be because of closing down access to their portal accounts, and thus kbmMW, but due to lots of other sanctions imposed upon them from a dead fast determined west!
However it can never be my, nor people in NATO, or EU or Ukraine’s responsibility that Russia has a despotic leader, unfortunately kept in power by a large enough proportion of Russians who are backing the leader.
So please point fingers where they belong!
> But I unfortunately can’t legally nor morally sit back and ignore what is going on.
Kim,
While I sympathize with the spirit of what you’re doing it it simply not legal. You are well within your right to refuse to do business with Russia going forward but the services you provide are not under embargo by EU or Denmark. If your Russian customers paid for a service then you are legally obliged to either deliver that service or refund the customers – regardless of your personal feelings or opinions.
With regard to the pointing of fingers; There’s no doubt that Russia is the aggressor in this war and that Ukraine has the moral high ground – on so many levels. And even though your Russian customers supposedly didn’t choose to have their leader go Stalin on them it’s obviously the responsibility of the Russian people to get rid of Putin – and they should have done so long time ago. However it’s not like what’s going on in Russia hasn’t been obvious to the world for many, many years (maybe even more obvious for those outside Russia) and yet many in the west has been enabling it by doing business with Russia. Regardless of Georgia, Chechnya, Crimea, Syria and the countless assassinations and false flag attacks that have followed the rise of Putin.
So maybe point one of your fingers at yourself.
Anders,
You are simply not correct. Dual use software is not allowed to be exported to Russia.
There can be made specific exemptions for certain specific things, but that require that the end user application software specifically will only be used for that exempt area of use. I have no chance of verifying that with a software development package which _is_ in military use today!
That you want to broadly make it my responsibility that I have “enabled” Russia to attack Ukraine, really deserves no reply. I am surprised you can even come up with such a claim!
I at least try to prevent it happening.
As for the (relatively few) people who are against my decision, the interesting part is most are non Russian and not affected.
/Kim
So instead of doing good to three sides (you: still making money, customers: continued support they paid for in these hard times, Ukraine people: you could for example donate them most part of payments from Russia) you just did bad for all of them (you: lost money and reputation for actually stealing money, customers: no support they paid for, Ukraine people: there could never be too much donations). Wise move, really.
Military applications in Delphi and middleware or mem table? Don’t make my boots laugh. You just make many customers to pirate.
Word
Nice bro, you nailed those Ruski programers! DId you do the same for the American delphi programwea for the wars in Iraq 1 and 2, Afghanistan, Lybia, Kosovo, Syria, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Gulf, Panama, Tanker, Pakistan, Uganda, Somalli, Yemen, VIetnam, Korea, Lebanon, Cambodia, Dominican, Pig Bay, Laoti, Yemen …the orange revolutions, the arabs springs. the list is big dude.
Here we go again….
Hi Stefan,
Did you read the blog post?
Did you understand it all, or only the parts you want to understand?
When exactly did “American” (I suppose you mean USA) threaten with levelling the EU or NATO or my home country?
Please indulge me in my seek for an answer for that particular question!
/Kim
Obviously not, since the USA is an strategic and historic ally. Still doesn’t stop them from spying on European politicians…
But yup, the US of A did mess a lot of countries up during and more so after WW2. As usual the real reason has always to do with resources and border protection. Same with Ukraine really. Just a bit closer to home.
I have been asked (by non Russians) about making a full refund for current paid subscriptions since there will be no access to new versions.
As the subscriptions are running at different offsets (each customer has his own purchase date), I will not refund the purchases, as the products has already been in the hands of the end users for a period of time.
Also remember that not all 600+ customers has current subscriptions, and many are free riders using our free tools.
However I have decided, so there will be no wrongful speculation, to simply take the income for the current subscriptions and donate to Ukraine via the UN donation program I have advocated for in previous posts.
As the current situation is a result of decisions by Russia, I feel no obligation towards Russia.
I do feel a professional sadness about the users in Russia who never wanted the war in the first place, and who are now going to suffer from it.
Most of their suffering will not be because of closing down access to their portal accounts, and thus kbmMW, but due to lots of other sanctions imposed upon them from a dead fast determined west!
However it can never be my, nor people in NATO, or EU or Ukraine’s responsibility that Russia has a despotic leader, unfortunately kept in power by a large enough proportion of Russians who are backing the leader.
So please point fingers where they belong!
Perfectly! Thank you very much from Ukraine!
> But I unfortunately can’t legally nor morally sit back and ignore what is going on.
Kim,
While I sympathize with the spirit of what you’re doing it it simply not legal. You are well within your right to refuse to do business with Russia going forward but the services you provide are not under embargo by EU or Denmark. If your Russian customers paid for a service then you are legally obliged to either deliver that service or refund the customers – regardless of your personal feelings or opinions.
With regard to the pointing of fingers; There’s no doubt that Russia is the aggressor in this war and that Ukraine has the moral high ground – on so many levels. And even though your Russian customers supposedly didn’t choose to have their leader go Stalin on them it’s obviously the responsibility of the Russian people to get rid of Putin – and they should have done so long time ago. However it’s not like what’s going on in Russia hasn’t been obvious to the world for many, many years (maybe even more obvious for those outside Russia) and yet many in the west has been enabling it by doing business with Russia. Regardless of Georgia, Chechnya, Crimea, Syria and the countless assassinations and false flag attacks that have followed the rise of Putin.
So maybe point one of your fingers at yourself.
Anders,
You are simply not correct. Dual use software is not allowed to be exported to Russia.
There can be made specific exemptions for certain specific things, but that require that the end user application software specifically will only be used for that exempt area of use. I have no chance of verifying that with a software development package which _is_ in military use today!
That you want to broadly make it my responsibility that I have “enabled” Russia to attack Ukraine, really deserves no reply. I am surprised you can even come up with such a claim!
I at least try to prevent it happening.
As for the (relatively few) people who are against my decision, the interesting part is most are non Russian and not affected.
/Kim
So instead of doing good to three sides (you: still making money, customers: continued support they paid for in these hard times, Ukraine people: you could for example donate them most part of payments from Russia) you just did bad for all of them (you: lost money and reputation for actually stealing money, customers: no support they paid for, Ukraine people: there could never be too much donations). Wise move, really.
Military applications in Delphi and middleware or mem table? Don’t make my boots laugh. You just make many customers to pirate.