James Richard Tyrer wrote:
Patrick McNamara wrote:
However, one question: OpenGraphics, or OpenHardware? I anticipate
that once OGD starts selling, people are going to (a) want to do
non-graphics things with it and (b) want to start similar projects
(e.g. RAID controllers, novel networking devices, etc, etc). We're
going to have some considerable expertise associated with the
foundation, and we don't want to scare interested people away from
us by giving the impression that we're about graphics and graphics
only...
I'd opt for open hardware. Initially this would only be the Open
Graphics Project. Addition of new projects would require certain
conditions be met, though I haven't given a whole lot of though to
what those conditions would be, along with vote from the board of
directors to add the project. I would think requiring something
other than a simple majority, perhaps an absolute two thirds
majority, would be required to add a new project.
Anyway, if there's any help I can give from this side of the
Atlantic, please let me know.
I'm still pondering over everything that needs to be done. I'm sure,
just like with everything else, there will be plenty of work to go
around. Thanks for the offer.
Would the FSF object if we called it the Free Hardware Foundation? Or,
would they like to help? The aim of the foundation would be educational
-- to promote full documentation of all computer hardware.
As Timothy pointed out in his response, "free" has multiple connotations
that cause all sorts of confusion, even with software which really can
be free (as in beer) since. That's the main reason I have been trying
to stick with "open" rather than free.
Remember, once you start a 501(c)(3) foundation that you are a public
charity and can't discriminate against anyone -- it would have to help
anyone wanting to have open hardware although you could work on the
basis of need and provide help to mostly small startups.
That's not entirely true. For a charity, yes, you cannot discriminate.
Not all 501(c)(3) corporations/foundations are charities. You of course
cannot discriminate on religion, sex, race, ethnicity, etc. However, we
are perfectly ok discriminating based on technical merit or business
plan merit.
You can't put profits from selling hardware into the foundation but,
IIUC, you could say that a percentage of the price of each item sold
would be donated to the foundation. And, you can sell stuff with logos
to raise money for the foundation as long as you keep good books.
We could put all the profits we wanted to into the foundation. We
simply cannot take them out. The absolute minimum requirements for a
non-profit corporation is that no amount of the profits can be
distributed to board members or share holders. In other words, you
cannot pay a dividend on stock, or even sell stock for that matter. The
most you can do is pay employees a salary (including the board members)
at that must be reasonable for the position held. There are obviosly
other requirements depending on the purpose of the corporation and
As the son of an account I can tell you that there three important
things you need to do:
Keep good books
Keep good books
Keep good books
:-D
No arguments there. :)
Also note that the 501(c)(3) books are open to public inspection and you
need to have a financial report that you can give to anyone that asks
for one.
Correct.
And, I forgot to mention that you have to incorporate the foundation to
have 501(c)(3) status. You should get a copy of the IRS publication and
read it carefully.
Also correct. I am up to my ears in the US tax code and Texas corporate
law. So far, I have actually been pretty impressed with the Texas
Business code. It's long, but fairly readable. Section 501 of the IRS
code isn't too bad. It gets worse after that.
Patrick M
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
