Taxes are relevant no matter what income source you have. I am saying that we need to split it up into several issues: * Infrastructure costs - As far as I can see, my company can cover things like servers and such. * Paying committers - seems to be more complex than I initially thought * Paying other people for tasks for us - tech writers, for example.
On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 10:50 PM, Davy Brion <[email protected]> wrote: > actually, tax is a very important issue here... > > we all take licenses pretty seriously when it comes to software (i'd hope), > and getting money for writing open source software should be held to the > same standard. that means that anyone who gets money for contributing to > open source should declare that money on their taxes... in the end, > depending on the countries of the contributors, about 20 to 40% of the > donated money is just going to be wasted on taxes. > > if we spend it on infrastructure, we probably wouldn't have to waste > anything on taxes... but maybe some kind of non-profit organization would > have to be founded first, i'm not sure on that... > > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Steve Strong <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Personally, I'd be inclined to agree. As soon as we try to split the >> cash, it's going to get ever so complex which was kind of the point of my >> previous email - if we do want to "pay ourselves" then we're going to have >> to deal with all of that and more (don't mention tax, anyone). If we think >> there's gonna be enough cash to clear our mortgages then perhaps it's worth >> it, but since I suspect it's more likely to be the occasional beer & pizza >> I'd rather avoid the overhead. >> >> Having the cash to fund other things (such as technical writers, software >> licences etc.) would be easier to manage and, providing we spend it wisely, >> do no end of good to both NH and the community. >> >> I've dealt with various clubs and organizations before where money was >> involved, so understand the complexity that it can lead to. Having said >> that, I've never done it on an OSS project, so I'm happy to be convinced in >> either direction :) >> >> >> >> On 03/02/2010 21:22, Davy Brion wrote: >> >> personally, i don't think the money should go to the committers... yeah, >> we do work on it for free but most of us do it because we _want_ to work on >> it, not because it might someday pay some bills >> >> i would vote for spending the money on infrastructure... a faster jira >> server, a faster svn server, things like that... >> >> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 9:04 PM, Steve Strong <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> I think the idea is a great one, particularly the offer to match >>> donations - very kind! I do have a couple of comments - firstly, whenever >>> money gets involved, some people have a tendency to loose sight of reality >>> and start seeing $$$ signs in front of their eyes. Given that, I would >>> suggest that we as a group define the rules for how this works prior to >>> taking donations - that way, everyone (us and those donating) understand >>> where the money is going and we don't end up in pointless arguments. I >>> suspect the levels of money won't be all that high, but you never can tell >>> and knowing how it is to be distributed is important. I think we need to >>> answer questions like: >>> >>> - Who is eligible for the money? Any committer? Only "active" >>> committers? What defines "active"? >>> - How is the money split? Do all committers (however that's defined) >>> get the same amount? Is it split by number of commits? Number of lines >>> of >>> code changed? >>> - Who owns the bank account? Who has visibility of it? Is it >>> available for public viewing? >>> - Do we have any other needs for money other than just distributing >>> it amongst individuals? Should we keep a pot for "NHibernate" >>> activities, >>> such as perhaps sponsoring the occasional conference? Hell, if there's >>> enough cash we could even have an NHibernate stand! NHibernate T-Shirts & >>> Mugs anyone?! >>> >>> Secondly, I don't see why you shouldn't take a share of this Ayende - you >>> have made many contributions to the project, and I see NHProf as something >>> different. Although your *knowledge* of NH helped you write it, there was >>> nothing about being a committer that made it possible. Anyone else *could* >>> have written NHProf without being a committer if they'd had both the idea >>> and the ambition to take it forward. NHProf will make its own money and has >>> its own associated costs. I don't really see the two (your commercial >>> activity with NHProf and your altruistic activity with NH) are related. If >>> they are, then any one of us that undertakes commercial NH consultancy or >>> writes or contributes to an NH book etc. would also have to come under the >>> same rules. >>> >>> Any thoughts? >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Steve >>> >>> >>> >>> On 03/02/2010 17:23, Ayende Rahien wrote: >>> >>> Guys, >>> >>> I am setting up a donation campaign for NHibernate. As part of that >>> campaign, my company will donate 5,000$ for the project. >>> >>> Below is the text of the blog post that I intend to post. I would like to >>> get your comments and any suggestions on how to make this better. >>> >>> >>> NHibernate is the most popular Open Source Object Relational Mapper in >>> the .NET framework. As an Open Source project, all the work done on it is >>> done for free. We would like to be able to dedicate more time to >>> NHibernate, but even as a labor of love, the amount of time that we can >>> spend on a free project is limited. >>> >>> In order to facilitate that, we opened a donation >>> campaign<http://pledgie.com/campaigns/8615>that will allow you to donate >>> money to the project. >>> >>> [image: Click here to lend your support to: NHibernate and make a >>> donation at www.pledgie.com !] <http://www.pledgie.com/campaigns/8615> >>> >>> *What is this money going to be used for?* >>> >>> This money will go directly to NHibernate committers, in order to sponsor >>> the development of NHibernate itself. >>> >>> As one caveat of that, none of that money is going to go to me >>> personally. As you are probably aware, I have my own commercial interest in >>> NHibernate (NHibernate Profiler <http://nhprof.com/>), so I don’t feel I >>> should benefit from the donations. >>> >>> *Donation Matching* >>> >>> Moreover, my company, Hibernating Rhinos <http://hibernatingrhinos.com/>, >>> is going to *match any donation *to this campaign (to a total limit of >>> 5,000$), as a way to give back to the NHibernate project for the excellent >>> software it produced. >>> >>> *Why should you donate?* >>> >>> If you are a user of NHibernate, you gained a lot from build on such a >>> solid foundation. We ask to you to donate so that we can make the project >>> even better. If your company uses NHibernate, ask it to donate to this >>> campaign. >>> >>> >> >
