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On Fri, Jan 6, 2017 at 12:37 PM, Raymond Jennings <shentino@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> Do what international companies do. |
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> |
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> Foreign subsidiaries or partnerships! |
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> |
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> I mean, if it becomes necessary can't there just be foundations incorporated |
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> under foreign laws, but still share the Gentoo mission? |
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> |
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> If someone cannot legally interact with the US foundation, but maybe they |
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> could with a foundation incorporated in their country? |
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> |
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> And then the various foundations just keep each other informed and stuff? |
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It depends on how this is legally structured, but I'm not convinced |
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that this actually does anything than make everybody subject to |
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everybody else's laws. |
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Certainly if the foreign organizations are subsidiaries of the US |
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organization they would be effectively subject to US law in addition |
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to their local laws. |
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If the NSA wants access to Google UK's servers they don't send a |
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letter to Google UK, they send a letter to the US corporation. If |
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France wants something removed from Google they don't send a letter to |
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the US Google, they send a letter to Google France. Either way if |
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Google doesn't comply they end up losing a lot of money. |
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You can draw up all the fancy org structures on paper that you want |
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to, but in the end if you exist in a country the country will expect |
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you to comply. Even if you don't exist in a country they can take |
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steps to make anything you do in that country difficult. No matter |
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how you intend it to work, governments are going to tend to look at |
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commits to a Gentoo repo as being works done on behalf of the legal |
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entity in that particular country. |
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When international companies for subsidiaries it isn't for the purpose |
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of avoiding compliance with laws that their parent company is subject |
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to. Sometimes there can be creative ways to avoid taxes (not an issue |
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for us), but for the most part it is about facilitating operations |
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within particular countries, like hiring employees, or owning |
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property, or importing/exporting, or obtaining regulatory |
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approvals/etc. |
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Really the only way to avoid US law is to have no legal presence or |
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property in the US. It should also be noted that the few areas where |
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US law might make it difficult for somebody to contribute probably |
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also are concerns in a lot of countries. |
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-- |
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Rich |
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