Michael Kintzios wrote: > >>-----Original Message----- >>From: Holly Bostick [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Sent: 11 August 2005 01:32 >>To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org >>Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Mozilla & Google behind the >>scenes payola >> >> > > [snip] > >>And if my theory holds water in any way, then the Mozilla Foundation >>really would have had no choice but to spin off a for-profit >>subsidiary... after all, if the money is rolling in (via perfectly >>legitimate and socially acceptable means), it has to go somewhere, and >>it can't go to the N-F-P foundation beyond a certain level. > > > An accountant could probably advise better, but I would think that there > are appropriate vehicles (e.g. NfP trusts) which would allow financial > profits that cannot be expensed in activities supporting the Moz > Organisation objectives within the financial year, to be stored and in > turn invested thereafter both in for profit and not schemes so that they > may grow and prosper. Making an economic profit is not a problem in > itself. Compromising Moz.Org./OSS objectives in seeking to derive this > profit creates a conflict of interest and therefore it becomes a > problem. Of course this may not be the case with the FF/Google > syndication, I don't really know.
Is this right? AFAIK, non-profits don't actually make "profits" at all, they have surpluses. The surpluses can't be redistributed as such (though of course a non-profit could give money away, though would probably need justification) but they are surpluses that in theory "should be" reinvested/spent. I really don't see any reason whatsoever for spinning off a company for these reasons. In any case, if the company remains wholly owned by the mozilla foundation then the problem won't go away - if the foundation decides to withdraw capital it will still be "surplus". I guess the company could then be sold but I can't see how it would differ from any other company that is paid to be the guider of an OSS project... I may be wrong about my assumptions but would be interested to know if that is wrong... Cheers Antoine -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
