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On 06/01/17 02:50, Rich Freeman wrote [excerpted]: |
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> I completely support having foreign legal entities if they provide |
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> some benefit and somebody is actually willing to do the work needed to |
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> sustain them (and assuming we can afford it if it costs money). |
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> However, for as hard as it is for us to stay on top of the US |
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> paperwork, from what I understand the US is actually one of the easier |
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> countries to incorporate in. |
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> |
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> When it comes to the financial side of things I really don't have a |
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> super-strong personal opinion as to where we should be based. I think |
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> it should be wherever makes the most sense. It probably shouldn't try |
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> to chase wherever the latest board members happen to live. |
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> |
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> If we're going to bother having trademarks and copyrights, then I do |
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> think that it makes sense to at least hold them in the US, though that |
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> doesn't preclude holding them in other places as well. |
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> |
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From what I do know about UK practice, it costs nothing to set up a |
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charity in the UK, and even the new CIO structure which another |
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voluntary organisation I belong to has done. Also, under a certain |
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annual sum, the accounting requirements are fairly minimal too, and can |
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be prepared by hand; for a CIO I think this has to be signed-off by an |
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accountant though. So the financial burden to Gentoo as a whole would be |
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financially quite small if there happened to be. say. three or four |
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people happy to sign up in the UK. Not that I'm saying this is a |
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suggestion even, just an example for which I can quote rough figures. |
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Regarding protection of assets, sure, having seen the chaos that Arduino |
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vs Arduino caused (its an amusing if sad story...) if, again, the aims |
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of the collective organisations are common, there should only be |
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enhanced protection by extending it across the globe. I'm not sure what |
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potential, for example, there might be in the Eastern 'block' .. perhaps |
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alicef might be able to shed some light on that. But all ideas I think |
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should be thrown on the table, and a serious discussion about the pros |
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and cons could then be had. Where the pros outweight the cons, we can |
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then look at planning and taking some action. I'm not saying that there |
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won't be an administrative burden, but perhaps one that could be better |
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born by those outside the US perhaps. |
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If it becomes relevant and/or necessary, we can always set up a Project |
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under the new structure to handle these kinds of things .. similar to |
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what the Foundation currently accomplishes. It could then have a broad |
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membership to take account of the different requirements it may cover. I |
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can't speak for other distro's or organisations, but this could be quite |
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a unique asset and "selling point" for Gentoo itself. |
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