Re: [gentoo-user] Gentoo Council vs Umbrella Corp ?

[james]

On 8/29/20 7:01 PM, Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 6:47 PM james <garftd@×××××××.net> wrote:
>>
>> On 8/29/20 4:49 PM, Rich Freeman wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps a read only mechanism could publish all of that financial data?
>> Perhaps timely data entry, should be a requirement?
>
> As part of the cleanup Robin has published a fair bit of this stuff on
> the Foundation wiki (on the Gentoo wiki).  I'd encourage those
> interested to browse.
>
> The stuff that is private (account nos, payees, etc) is in an
> infra-hosted private git repo.  That is actually a big improvement
> because a lot of the problems came from it being in a box at
> somebody's home for a number of years, which made it hard to tell what
> was going on, and without going into details we'll just say that
> reports were not always accurate.
>
>> Can/will you summarize the collective reason to get rid of the
>> Foundation or any other component of Gentoo management? If they are not
>> being paid, why the rush to terminate?
>
> So, mgorny outlined a lot of that on the blog.  The concern is that
> we've finally gotten to a clean state, and now we ought to figure out
> where we're going while we're STILL in a clean state.
>
> Otherwise our bus factor is pretty low before things start slipping
> again, and if we get out of compliance then changing things will be
> harder.
>
>> Are there resources for access to those discussions, meeting minutes
>> notes and such? Audio recording of meetings or some sort of summary?
>
> Just about everything is on the Foundation wiki pages, or the -nfp
> list (which is archived).  I recommend browsing the recent history if
> you're interested - it is a very low-traffic list.  Discussions on the
> fate of the Foundation can be a bit noisy, but you can just skip any
> really long threads if you're looking for more housekeeping stuff.
> The Trustee meeting minutes on the wiki is where much of the meat is,
> though the community discussion leading up to decisions tends to be on
> the lists.
>
>> Redundancy, is a key component of most all of computer science. Trust,
>> but verify, is another fundamental tenant. If your want formal
>> references, its under the blanket term of 'Fault Tolerance'. I write
>> this for the benefit of all readers.
>
> This is what I'm really getting at.  And really this is what I mean by
> cloud.  I don't mean moving everything from a non-replicated infra to
> a non-replicated single cloud provider.  I mean trying to move to more
> distributed technologies so that we can be replicated on many
> providers, which could be cloud or individually hosted or whatever.
>
> Unfortunately while this is very straightforward for git it isn't so
> straightforward for a lot of other stuff, in particular bugzilla.
>
> I trimmed down the reply quite a bit because much of what you asked
> about is largely already discussed or I don't have much to add.  There
> are pros and cons to all the options and I don't think anybody
> questions that.  This is part of why we're in analysis paralysis.

So, my take-aways are:

1. Find the links and read up on what has occurred, to date.

2. Follow up on convencing the leadership (?) to use GNUcash, with real 
time postings and read privileges.

3. Trying to figure out 'why' Gentoo leaders are balking at converting 
to a '501(c)'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501(c)_organization

4. Clearly expressing that it is OK for folks and corps to use Gentoo's 
code_base to make money. Although, there are no current 'payola' 
requirements when making money using gentoo, that can easily be change 
by those in control. Were Gentoo to convert to a '501(c)' corp, we the 
users and purveyors of Gentoo would have legal rights to use Gentoo to 
make money. Since Gentoo is a privately help corporations, it is trivial 
to reverse any standards of business practice, fees and such, at the 
sole discretion of those in control. So, based on decades of experience, 
I'd strongly suggest converting to a 501(c) corp.

5. It is very, very wrong for Gentoo to stay organized as a "for profit" 
corporation. Because, that means the contributions to Gentoo, become the 
property of the for profit corp. Although it is not a current exploit, 
it is not illegal (but maybe immoral) to massively change direction. 
Profiteering from the good works and contributions of the many, to the 
glutinous benefit of the few, is a constant, recurring theme among 
corporations.

Precedence has already been set. Smarty-Pants took Gentoo and for 
CoreOS, which was then sold to Redhat. Redhat was subsequently purchased 
by IBM. Millions and Millions of dollars change hand.


The same thing can easily happen to Gentoo, when an installation disc is 
created. It's an economic windfall, just waiting to happen.

It's a deception, in the eyes of the court system. And yes, there are 
huge ramifications for such actions. But, as  previously pointed out, 
finding enforcement is a challenge. The IRS constantly 'wheels and 
deals' behind the scenes, if you have the right attorney.   Gentoo, if 
it had a robust installation CD, would be worth about One Billion 
Dollars, or more. So by simple creating that install CD, the corporate 
owners and managers could reap in Millions and Millions of dollars, 
whilst leaving the faithful 'high and dry'.

Please lead the effort to convert Gentoo to a 501(c) corp? Perhaps a 
preliminary (non binding) vote by the senior devs, the council and the 
trustees, where the results are published, is a method to bust the 
analysis paralysis.   Public exposure and pressure can guide Gentoo into 
a proper pristine global position, and become short listed with many 
projects.

A private corp?...................Criminal.

Me?  I'd publically expose those who are against converting to a 501(c) 
organization. You may want to be more gentile with those with nefarious 
intentions. I've had to 'whip some ass' too many times for this sort of 
nefarious collectives.


sincerely,
James Horton, pe