On 11/13/2017 12:31 AM, jake wrote: > Clearly, Snowdrift.coop is non-profit. > > But must all projects funded on Snowdrift be non-profit? >
No, but none of the project requirements are set in stone since we still have to roll out that whole structure. The plan is *not* to require that all projects be legal non-profits but that all the work funded from Snowdrift.coop go toward the direct development of public goods. That means not getting funded from Snowdrift.coop and just then giving the money to investors or keeping it as profit without putting it toward new work. > If so, the developers may be paid as an expense to the non-profit > organization. But at what point does this become a profitable business > for the developers? This seems to be a misunderstanding of the whole nature of non-profit entities. Nearly all non-profits have paid employees, and some are paid decently. What makes a non-profit is that there are no investors who own stock and get returns on their investment. There can still be any number of paid employees paid to do work. > Is it simply that the developers are not allowed to make purchasing > decisions for the organization, such as to pay themselves? That issue has more to do with who makes decisions. That is not an issue for non-profits per se (or Snowdrift.coop projects per se), but there are legal regulations around decision-making when it comes to tax-exempt organizations (like 501(c)(3) in the U.S.). I'm not a lawyer so can't go into details there. > > The big question: is it ethical to essentially start a business using > Snowdrift? There are business models where a company commercializes > open-source software. Take CodeWeavers and Red Hat, Inc., for example. > Ethical is a philosophical question. I think there are at least ethical questions about the whole concept of profit. I certainly it's unethical to put profit *over* the public good in any situation. As for Snowdrift.coop, we're not focusing on *starting* businesses but on funding the creative work that produces or improves public goods. Codeweavers makes a commercial product based on Wine. We would support Wine itself (and it's fine for Codeweavers to share in the benefits of the improvements to Wine). Red Hat provides hardware and support while using free software like Gnome. We would support Gnome and other free software that Red Hat uses. Red Hat (or other new companies) are perfectly welcome to do business providing hardware and support services around the free software we support. > > Cheers, > Jake > Hope that answers your questions. Feel free to ask more. Cheers, Aaron
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