Re: legal issues (suing debian, pine, et al.)
greq wrote,
> On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Richard E. Hawkins Esq. wrote:
>
> > It's not that simple. FIrst of all, didn't debian incorporate about two years
> > ago?
> >
> > Secondly, without being incorporated, it wouldn't be just the individual
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > maintainers at risk. Exactly how much of the leadership and how far down the
> > chain of developers liability extended is debatatable, and far from pretty.
> > rick, esq.
> I think you have that backwards, you incorporate to LIMIT the liability
> to the corporation. In a corporation only the assets of the corporation
> are at risk. The assets of the owners of the corporation are not. This
> prevents someone from grabbig your kid's college fund if they sue Exxon
> and you happen to be a shareholder as an example. Debian's treasury would
> be at risk if it is incorporated but the finances of its officers would be
> safe. A corporation is an individual for legal purposes.
Yes, I'm quite aware of this; I'm a lawyer, and that is what I'm saying. That paragraph above describes ther risks "without being incorporated".
Also, the fact of incorporation does not protect the individual who causes the liability. If someone, for example, places copyrighted material into the debian distribution, both the person and debian are liable.
rick, esq.
--
These opinions will not be those of ISU until it pays my retainer.
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: