Re: [gentoo-project] Meeting agenda - Council meeting 2018-04-08

[David Abbott]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 7:43 AM, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 10:39 PM, Matthew Thode
> <prometheanfire@g.o> wrote:
>> On 18-04-05 21:15:08, William Hubbs wrote:
>>> On Tue, Apr 03, 2018 at 08:19:52AM -0500, Matthias Maier wrote:
>>>
>>> *snip*
>>>
>>> > 8. The council was requested to discuss and vote on the following motion [8]
>>> >
>>> >       "The Gentoo council shall directly contact "Software in the Public Interest
>>> >       Inc." (SPI), with the intention of Gentoo becoming a SPI Associated Project,
>>> >       independent of the Gentoo Foundation."
>>>
>>> As a newly accepted member of the Gentoo foundation, I am making sure
>>> the trustees are aware of this agenda item.  Is it ok for us to join an
>>> alternate organization such as is being proposed?
>>>
>>
>> Nope, though I imagine the council already knows that (the council has
>> requested this in the past iirc).
>>
>
> I don't think he was suggesting that the Foundation should become
> associated with SPI, but rather the distro.  The wording is a bit
> sloppy, IMO.
>
> Maybe something like this might convey what I suspect was the intent:
>
> The council shall directly contact "Software in the Public Interest
> Inc." (SPI), with the intention of the project becoming a SPI
> Associated Project,
> independent of the Gentoo Foundation.
>
> I'd suggest a better model might be:
>
> The council shall directly contact "Software in the Public Interest
> Inc." (SPI), with the intention of the project becoming a SPI
> Associated Project,
> in addition to being supported by the Gentoo Foundation.
>
> I think we're getting a bit hung up on the word "Gentoo" referring to
> both a legal entity and a community/project supported by the entity.
> Legally it only means the first.  However, I can think of no legal
> reason that the group of people associated with Gentoo couldn't also
> associate with other legal entities, as long as Gentoo's legal rights
> to the copyrights/trademarks are respected.  That is just freedom of
> association.
>
> IMO having multiple organizations supporting the distro could be
> beneficial.  I'd concede that it would be unconventional.  Legally the
> Gentoo name would only belong to one of them, but the work itself
> could be funded and supported via any of them.
>
> If nothing else this might also be a way to reduce the workload on the
> Foundation so that they can focus more on getting the paperwork caught
> up vs actually having to pay for infra.
So the funding is coming from the council? What will SPI use to pay infra with?
>
> --
> Rich

Regards,

-- 
David Abbott (dabbott)
Gentoo Foundation Secretary
http://dev.gentoo.org/~dabbott/