Op 10-6-2011 0:44, Simon Phipps schreef:
On 9 Jun 2011, at 23:06, Robert Derman wrote:
Volker Merschmann wrote:
Hi,
2011/6/9 Simon Brouwer<[email protected]>:
Suppose Oracle had considered donating the OpenOffice.org trademarks and
copyrights to TDF. How could it be the recipient of such a donation if it
didn't exist as a legal entity?
I'm feeling it's the hundredth time it is told: The german association
"Freies Office Deutschland e.V." is the legal represantive for the TDF
until the legal act of founding has happened. And the latter one is
not so easy to do.
Volker
My Deutsch isn't the best, I am guessing that the literal translation of the
above is Freedom Office Germany e.V. whatever the e. V. stands for. Anyway a
non legaleze explanation of what is happening and what must happen for TDF to
be a full official foundation would be appreciated.
I'll try to explain as I understand it.
Disclaimer:
I just an ordinary TDF member, not on the Board and with no official standing.
This is just the view I have gained by reading the mailing list and wiki. I am
English and have limited German skills, so this may contain errors and I
welcome corrections.
Summary:
There is already "a full official foundation" involved - FrODeV - with
LibreOffice effectively one of its projects, but its mission statement is more general
than just LibreOffice so it is in the process of spinning out a new entity to look after
LibreOffice.
Detail:
There is already a non-profit in existence; it's name is "Freies Office Deutschland e.V." ("eV" is
a German suffix a bit like "Ltd" or "Inc"), but it's easier to call it FrODeV for short[1]. It is a
fully-functional German non-profit with bylaws[2], accounts[3] and everything. It has existed for a number of years and
exists to support and promote open source office suites.
It used to be called OpenOffice.org Deutschland eV but changed its name[1] when
the LibreOffice project started so its scope was clearly all open source office
suites. FrODeV has been running a separate asset pool[4] for LibreOffice, and
has expressed its intent to spin out a new, capital-backed non-profit
organisation to look after that asset pool.
To do that, FrODeV needs a set of voting members, an elected Board, a set of
bylaws and a capital sum in the asset pool. Once it has all those, it can
incorporate the new entity and spin it out. So a timeline of that process looks
like this:
1. FrODeV starts the process of hosting TDF with the intent of it being an
incorporated capital-holding non-profit foundation in Germany (Stiftung)
2. A Steering Committee is appointed to handle TDF's affairs, under the
oversight of FrODeV
3. The necessary capital sum is obtained from donors
4. Bylaws are devised
5. A membership is identified according to the bylaws
6. The membership elects a Board of Directors
7. FrODeV incorporates the Stiftung, as "Stifter" (founder/donor).
8. TDF now exists as a legal entity independent of FrODeV
The process has reached stage 5, and stage 6 is imminent. There has been and as far as I
can tell will never be a point in this process where there is no "full official
foundation" in existence.
I don't understand your reasoning in that last part.
Yes there is an existing legal entity in the picture, but it is not TDF
but FroDEV, and it is not a foundation but an association.
--
Vriendelijke groet,
Simon Brouwer.
| http://nl.openoffice.org | http://www.opentaal.org |
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