Gentoo Archives: gentoo-nfp

From: Sven Vermeulen <swift@g.o>
To: gentoo-managers@l.g.o, gentoo-nfp@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-nfp] Re: I met with my lawyer
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 07:33:32
Message-Id: 20040417073313.GF8147@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-nfp] I met with my lawyer by Pieter Van den Abeele
1 On Sat, Apr 17, 2004 at 02:02:09AM +0200, Pieter Van den Abeele wrote:
2 > Do we have to trust the people you have made commitments to, and which
3 > are going to be selected by gentoos sole FP entity (because that is the
4 > only thing you have been doing lately)?
5 > I wouldn't want to be part of that NFP board, because people could say
6 > that I'm one of guys you made a secret commitment with.
7
8 I think this is being paranoid. Daniel's intention here is to make sure that
9 the creation of the NFP doesn't take too long so that people *see* that
10 advances are made. Using a preliminary board of trustees until everything
11 settles is frequently used. This is clearly mentioned:
12 """
13 This initial board of trustees will serve for one year from the
14 establishment of the Gentoo Foundation, after which point a the board will
15 be elected by the members (Gentoo developers.) After that, regular elections
16 will be held (election cycle TBD) to determine board members.
17 """
18
19 The wording Daniel used is a bit unthoughtful (the "meet my commitments to
20 existing managers and developers") and should probably be read as something
21 like:
22 """
23 There will be an initial board of trustees appointed which will guide the
24 NFP through its first year. To ease the transitioning, this board will
25 consist out of (a subset of) the current "top level managers" and a few
26 other developers which have contributed significantly to Gentoo. Note
27 that this board is initial and temporary and that elections will happen
28 when the NFP transition is finished.
29 """
30
31 Or something similar. Don't try and take each letter in a word and put it
32 upside down - we are not formally deriving a proof for a mathematical
33 theorem, we are dealing here with a big, large project filled with motivated
34 people who want to work on whatever they like without having to go through
35 too much hassle.
36
37 People never had or have issues with coördinators (or managers or whatever
38 you like to call them) as long as those people don't try to hide themselves
39 behind rules and regulations and pretend to be more than just a developer
40 interested in the coördination (and therefore future) of Gentoo.
41
42 I'm very disappointed with what I had to catch up on on -core. I'm glad that
43 positive results are being created *again* which is a good sign for the
44 healthiness of this project. All issues we might have had have been resolved
45 in the past and will be resolved in the future as well.
46
47 Daniel: I agree with the spirit of your proposal. I don't personally care if
48 you have a "perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free use" of the "Gentoo"
49 trademark and "G" logo or a gentlemen's agreement. If you weren't trustworthy
50 I would've left Gentoo a long time ago. In this sense I think the former is
51 a better agreement as "a gentlemen's agreement" will lead to discussions
52 again.
53
54 Wkr,
55 Sven Vermeulen
56
57 --
58 ^__^ And Larry saw that it was Good.
59 (oo) Sven Vermeulen
60 (__) http://www.gentoo.org Documentation & PR