Carolus wrote:Announcement from the Board of Managers of iMSLP / Project Petrucci
Carl Simpson
VP/Treasurer, Project Petrucci
I'm sorry, I don't get it.
You're giving thousands of reasons why IMSLP cannot be, or cannot be changed into a non-profit entity.
Wikipedia/Wikimedia does it, why couldn't IMSLP do it?
4. To protect the site from hostile takeover by outside forces which might wish to shut it down or charge users for access. Small corporations without publicly-traded stock are immune from these threats. A non-profit corporation is not.
WHAT ??? I'm sorry, I'll phrase this in a more urbane manner: could you elaborate please and enlighten me? How can a non-profit corporation, which, the way I understand it, doesn't have publicly or even privately-traded stock, be the prey to the threat of a "hostile takeover"? Is Wikimedia threatened by potential takeover by "outside forces"? You mean - like... Universal is going to take you over to shut down the website... and would do so more easily if you were a non-profit charity? Frankly, I don't get the reasoning here.
Although it may be changed to a non-profit in the future, we must reach the point of sustainability first.
Why? Did Wikipedia wait to be "sustainable" to establish the Wikimedia foundation? No, it established the Wikimedia foundation in order to ensure its sustainability:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation.
Different methods of fund raising have been tried. It has been interesting to note that many people have not even noticed previous efforts, which indicates that many people have simply tuned them out.
Certainly not, and I think it's a problem that you should appear to draw that conclusion. It just indicates that your campaigns for funding have been so discreet that nobody noticed them. Except for the "donate" icon, I've never seen any, and I've certainly not tuned out. I've never failed to notice when Wikipedia launched a bid for funding - and have always responded.
I'm not even sure it's legal for a business for-profit corporation to sollicit and receive donations. Is it? I've never seen Ford Motors do it. What's sure is that, as long as you're not recognized by the tax authorities as a non-profit, any donations will be taxable. Is that why your campaigns have been so discreet?
Since websites reach across the nation and the globe, setting up a non-profit must be done in all 50 states of the USA. For it to be non-profit internationally, even further stringent and expensive requirements must be met. The initial creation is only part of the expense, costly annual paperwork and fees must be paid to each jurisdiction which grants tax exempt status.
What kind of an argument is that? So, by the same token, since you reach across the globe, you need to set up a non-profit in all the countries of the world? Are business corporations incorporated in all 50 states? I thought they were incorporated in one - and usually Delaware... Is Wikimedia incorportated worldwide? So far as I know, a charitable organization is incorporated in one state and granted charitable status by the IRS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitabl ... ted_States. So please explain the legalities of your claim, because as is it is looks very much like some sort of red herring...
Financial information will be released at the time Project Petrucci is able to change to a non-profit entity
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Which, based on all the above, I will translate in good English: "never", because it is clearly not your intent to ever do so.
NONE of this answers my concerns. In fact it would reinforce them. I have the distinct feeling that not all is being told to us, that convoluted explanations are given just to dodge the issues and divert our attention, and I don't like the feeling. I'm hoping you will demonstrate that I'm wrong.