* Sven Luther (sven.luther@wanadoo.fr) wrote: > On Wed, Sep 07, 2005 at 08:47:24AM -0400, Stephen Frost wrote: > > Perhaps there's a language misunderstanding here. Commercial *means* > > selling things, at least where I'm from. What you're referring to seems > > to be what I'd understand as a non-profit. These are two distinct > > things. IANAL but I do believe that in the US a non-profit is similar > > to what you call a 'non-commercial institution' in that it can sell > > things provided it helps in reaching the goals and therefore is in the > > public interest. > > Nope, restricting your world view in warped US-interpretation. Funny, I thought it was a warped English-interpretation of the English language. dict seems to agree with my interpretation. :/ > Let's say your paroquial association or housewife get-together association, > start to sell house-made cakes in order to finance the repainting or fixing of > the roof of their church or school or whatever. Or school children raising > money for an excursion or whatever. > > This, independent of the law involved, is by any common sense applied to it no > business or commerce, and is quite similar to what is going on at shows and > events, when there are t-shirts being sold at the debian booth. Honestly, you're the first one to bring up that there's some limitation on volume regarding being commercial or non-commercial. This still doesn't deal with the issue that we claim to not sell products on our webpage. Do you happen to know what the volume is before you become a commercial entity? I have some serious difficulty directly equating non-commercial and non-profit. Perhaps that's just the US laws I'm vauguely familiar with influencing me. Either way though I'd like to know at what point would you consider Debian a commercial entity? > That the money is used to pay the fee for the booth, have a nice big > after-event party, or whatnot, or sponsors travel of debian developpers to > events, that is all fine, and nothing to be ashamed about, and in no case is > this a business or commercial venture. So, who's going to update the webpage to reflect this and exactly what is it going to say? > > Either way, however, we do claim to not sell products. I hope there's > > no misunderstanding on what that means. To me, selling t-shirts would > > fall under selling products, and therefore would be commercial activity, > > though not necessairly for-profit. > > Nope, if you are really from the US, then your view on this is limited by the > way you think there, and if not, no idea if you ever participated in > associative life. Uhh... http://www.debian.org/CD/vendors/info "Debian does not sell any products." I don't *think* that my being in the US is somehow making me read that differently than the rest of the world, but hey, if you see something different on that page, please let me know! > > > > Either Debian's going to be a commercial entity or it's not. > > > > > > Debian is not a commercial entity just because it _also_ sells T-Shirts > > > and other stuff. > > > > Selling things is exactly what being a commercial entity means. :( > > Bullshit. Please educate yourself. Uh-huh. > Friendly, So kind. :) Thanks, Stephen
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