On 6 July 2018 at 09:58, Cornelius Schumacher <cschum@suse.de> wrote:
On Freitag, 6. Juli 2018 09:03:42 CEST Simon Lees wrote:
On 06/07/18 15:12, Basil Chupin wrote:
On 03/07/18 14:33, Simon Lees wrote:
We also have similar issues at times accepting monetary sponsorship for conferences etc. So yes it makes sense for openSUSE to have its own bank account and openSUSE already has the power to do this without needing to ask SUSE.
Are you sure that you have this right?
In terms of what we are talking about here, having an account that 3rd party donors can put funds in and the openSUSE project can then spend those funds yes.
You still haven't told us who would own this account. With SUSE being the only legal entity right now which can own anything regarding openSUSE, I don't see how the answer to this question can be yes.
Where is it defined that SUSE is the only "legal entity right now which can own anything regarding openSUSE"? openSUSE is a registered trademark administered under the openSUSE Trademark Guidelines [1] Those guidelines permit many uses, such as for Advocacy Groups. There are restrictions that the group should not identify itself as "sponsored by, or affiliated with the openSUSE Project (or its related projects) unless it actually has been so approved, sponsored, or affiliated;" So take for example a situation like SPI, which could be described as an advocacy group. The openSUSE Project could choose to become a member of SPI, Inc. This would be an approved affiliation under the Trademark Guidelines. SPI operates as "Software in the Public Interest, Inc" - that would become a 'legal entity' affiliated with openSUSE. Donations could be made to "Software in the Public Interest, Inc", with memo/payment references to "openSUSE" [2] SPI, not openSUSE would be taking the donations and dealing with all those nasty legal details, with the money/hardware/etc marked for use by openSUSE. openSUSE could then make use of those donations earmarked directly for it, in addition to anything extra which SPI might make available to it if openSUSE was deemed to have such a need. A solution like the above would be consistent with the Trademark Guidelines and it's current status with SUSE, while still enabling openSUSE to leverage SPI's donation, asset holding, and legal services. Most of which are services we don't need given our relationship with SUSE, but they might be nice options to have for a rainy day. As an aside, as this is mostly brainstorming in the open - It's fair to consider my interpretation of SPI as an Advocacy Group may not be wholly correct, but in such a case the "All Other Uses" clause in the openSUSE Trademark Guidelines would apply. The initial point of contact for discussing granting explicit permission for any Trademark use not defined in the Trademark Guidelines is the openSUSE Board. So that route remains a viable one for investigation. [1] https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Trademark_guidelines [2] https://www.spi-inc.org/donations/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org