-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: MD5 Chris Gianelloni wrote: > On Wed, 2006-09-06 at 23:50 -0400, Curtis Napier wrote: >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> Hash: MD5 >> >> I'm in support of having a list of devs who want to do paid support. >> Anything that helps people eat is OK in my book. ;) >> >> On the other hand, I think we need to have the foundation run this past >> our lawyer(s) and make sure we have our i's dotted and out t's crossed. >> I would hate for something good like this to cause us problems down the >> road. > > Umm... The Foundation has zero to do with a contract between two third > parties. Let me give you an example. I am currently doing paid "Gentoo > work" for a company, who will remain nameless. I filled out paperwork > with the company. My being a member of the Gentoo Foundation, a > Trustee, or anything else, has exactly zero bearing on my being > contracted, as an individual, to a company. > >> I know christel is consulting with an accountant about adpot-a-dev, >> maybe she can throw this in as well? > > Do we have to do some special law-abiding dance to have sponsors listed > on the site? What about advertisers? > > What Christel is researching is the tax law related to individuals > receiving gifts. It has no bearing on the Foundation itself. > > Let's look at this another way. We have advertisers that sell Gentoo > servers and Gentoo-based services. How exactly is this any different? > Is it because they're developers? How does that matter? In the end, > the contract is entirely between two third-party entities, the > developer, and whomever contracts him. It isn't like the Foundation is > offering services. It isn't. The individual developers are offering > services. The Foundation is not any of our employer. We are not bound > by any legal contract to the Foundation, and it has no ties to us. >
Giving ad space to our sponsors is legal for us to do as a Not For Profit because they are donating goods and/or services to us. Technically we are not giving them "ads", we are acknowledging the donated goods and/or services. Just like PBS does at the beginning of it's shows, they aren't ads but acknowledgments of donations. Basically I just want to make sure that we are not breaking any of the rules of being a Not For Profit foundation. The IRS doesn't accept "We didn't know any better" as an excuse when they come knocking on our door to re-evaluate our Not For Profit status because we are giving free advertising to people who *ARE* being paid in a For Profit manner. And if the IRS changes our status we *may* be liable for back taxes. I know I'm the only one who ever says anything about the legality of what we do and always brings the Foundation into it but let's face facts: The Gentoo web properties are owned and operated by the Gentoo Foundation which means that those web properties MUST follow the law concerning Not For Profit. If no one else is concerned about it then I'll drop it but when the day comes and the IRS is a knockin'.... don't look at me. Besides, what can it hurt to have one of the Foundation Trustees ask one of our lawyers about it? - --Curtis -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iQEVAwUBRQIxOEb8Q0uRCeTQAQFDMggAzP8sLxQ1btrjo6OioDxEgU65nvCSNfT0 Qn8gDxlcPA5HtRZA5c3Rw2uM2sCC55C2tW3SVoa5EJFH9Gs/cnzNkAdNeW8HaQTD ErG9WvZKsI/fvax1JHIgBTq03p81WxIY9GFc6olCdr0BgFptiZIx2kPaxZ+6q/wY 0Zv1nzzvet3lmM2ZYet35vds0WrhyHrqAvUcvlcgcz6gmlsmOXlS/WXazRi8636T 5yytNzfV7pdsf3t2BF+n3Cg93kiF2x4u2OV/rPUFWHpkzpjoTB5XNEgogelrDMQn wBhxbN4LE96mc/Km+vD7Mt8cBU/8UFmn1wMKyVGsLS6xReADkD4+Ew== =7+lW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
