On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 11:48, you wrote: > Carl Cerecke and Christopher Sawtell wrote: > ... they are trading retail ... They donated some stuff ... They are doing both these activities.
> Ken McAllister comments: I am prejudiced in Molten Media's favour > because they gave some equipment to Larry Ross for Nuclear Free NZ; I > am possibly prejudiced against them because in a couple of visits I > couldn't get a feeling for exactly whom they intended to benefit. Originally they were set up to provide electronic pre-press work and actual printing run work for other charitable NGOs, and to provide an environment in which unemployable disadvantaged youths of both sexes could be prepared for full time work or study. I personally know of one case where this happened with an extremely happy outcome. 10+ years on, one of the said youths is now employed by one of the the country's leading software houses doing a very responsible job. They never actually owned the printing press and its owner wanted to move away & took his press with him. They also provided diy access to pre-press computing facilities for members of the public who wanted to do work of that kind. i.e. a scan of a picture at very reasonable cost. At one point, before the advent of the 'e-caf on every corner' era, they provided economic Internet access for the General Public. There is a clause in the trust deed about 'disadvantaged youth', and as a consequence when they were in the Litchfield St. premises they had a continuum of utterly 'unemployable disadvantaged youths' from the Justice and Corrections Departments. This charitable activity was, to say the least, of very questionable value, in fact, it was a heavy cost centre. I am not aware of the exact circumstances which altered the focus of activity from the charitable printing pre-press work to, in effect, being scrap dealers. > If Molten Media is a charity, does anyone know who the trustees are? The _are_ a registered charitable trust. You can - should be able to - look up who the trustee are in the register held by the registraar. Why not just ask them? > If Molten Media is not a charity, can anyone tell me its legal set-up? I > don't wish them harm; I'm just curious. See above. > Oh, I remember. This was ages ago and I am sure that things have > changed. "Can I buy one without paying for Windows?" I remember > asking. "Can I put Linux on one of these machines?" The sensible > answers (I know now!) were: yes, of course, and, no, most of these > mavchines are too old to run both Linux and a modern office suite like > StarOffice; the customer is better off with Windows and Word. > > What they actually answered was, as I recollect, "Of course not - we > have to stay legitimate - we must sell Windows or else you would copy > your existing Windows and we would be in trouble." That must have been around the time they, together with all the other computer re-cycling outfits, were 'read the riot act' by the BSA. -- C. S.
