Re: [gentoo-project] Merging Trustees and Council / Developers and Foundation - 1.0 reply

[William L. Thomson Jr.]

On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 6:24:06 AM EST Matthias Maier wrote:
>
> I am a bit astonished by the sudden proposal to centralize more power
> under the Gentoo Foundation, A US based non-profit. As was laid out by
> ulm and dilfridge, there are a number of severe legal uncertainties for
> non-US citizens participating in such a construct and frankly speaking I
> do not see the need for it. On the contrary.

This is not a power play, just an organizational change to a proper structure 
like most any other project. The US is the champion of Freedom, maybe after 
France. The Free Software movement basically originates from the US. All of 
the entities for the FOSS community reside in the US, SLFC, SPI, and EFF.

I think allot of this non-US citizen concern is well over blown and not 
justified. Other FOSS projects would have the same issues. NONE of this stuff 
is unique to Gentoo.

>  - It is my firm believe that it is *vital* for an open source project
>    that essentially consists of volunteers from around the world to be
>    organized as a community and not as a legal entity under some
>    jurisdiction.

Take a look at any major project and you will see it has a legal entity. You 
have to have such to project the IP at minimum, logo, etc.

>    Therefore the status quo makes a lot of sense:

It never has, people can try to justify it all they want. But NOTHING else has 
the structure of Gentoo. No project, entity, nothing in the world. Its long 
time this be corrected.

Don't take my word look for examples of anything like or the same as Gentoo's 
structure.

>      - the developer community organizing itself
>
>      - the Foundation taking care of legal matters (finances and
>        infrastructure) that need a legal entity in some jurisdiction

Developers cause legal liability for the Foundation. Having them separate yet 
having people be legally responsible for others does not make any sense.

Why would I want to be liable for your actions, when you are totally separate?

>    The vital bit is the fact that the developer community is
>    self-organizing and this includes the power to decide who is a member
>    and who is not.

Again why should anyone take on legal liability of the developers then?

>  - Now, all you essentially propose is to shift the "hr(comrel)" part to
>    the Foundation - all the rest (trustees, pr, and infra) it is already
>    in charge of.

Comrel can cause legal liability. If they take action against someone that 
amounts to defamation, a individual can sue.

The Council is best left to technical matters. If it is a technical dispute 
let council deal. If not then why not let Trustees handle that. I think most 
council members would welcome that, maybe not. But Council and Trustees can 
work TOGETHER. It need not be a this one does that this one does this, with no 
overlap.

>    So, why is it important to give the Foundation the power to decide
>    over the "hr" part of the Gentoo developer community?

Legal liability. Comrel may need to limit its actions if it increase liability 
on the Foundation. This is in the Trustees right and duty to project Gentoo 
from such legal actions.
 
>    If it is just about comrel, well, we can easily reorganize comrel
>    into an elected body (by the Gentoo developer community) similarly to
>    the council.

It is not, and just as Comrel actions can cause liability for the Foundation, 
so can Developer actions.

>    I do not see any necessity for the Foundation to be involved in the
>    self organization of the developer community. On the contrary, there
>    is the danger that a strengthened Foundation will severely undermine
>    the authority of our developer community procedures, with
>
>      - trustees being able to overrule the council on technical and
>        community decisions

This can already happen now. The Foundation is the legal body of Gentoo. The 
council nor developers have any legal recourse against the Foundation or 
Board.

If the Trustees did such, likely would have good reason and it is their duty 
to uphold the Gentoo Social Contract.

>      - trustees being able to overrule our (developer) recruiting
>        process

Again they have legal power to do such. They are the legal representatives, 
and if overruling prevents or limits liability then it should be done.

> So, as  a trustee (and the one proposing this move), why do you want to
> have this power presiding over the developer community?

It really is just about proper organization. Not some power play. I would hope 
it would lead to increase cooperation between both and help further Gentoo.

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.