Legal entities for Debian (was: Re: General resolution: Condemn Russian invasion of the Ukraine)
Holger Levsen <holger@layer-acht.org> writes:
> the CCC e.V. association OTOH was formed as a legal entity to protect
> individuals.
To be clear, this sort of outcome may well be the correct outcome of "give
Debian legal existence." In other words, the goal doesn't need to be to
form a non-profit with the name "Debian," and it may well be wiser to have
multiple organizations for different legal domains.
The desired outcome from my perspective is just that if one is doing work
on Debian in a country where legal liability is a concern, that work is
being done under the auspices of some sort of organization that provides a
liability shield so that Debian Developers aren't individually liable for
everything Debian does, including things they had nothing to do with.
Obviously if the law doesn't work that way in your jurisdiction, your
jurisdiction may not require any such organization. But my understanding
is that the law *does* work that way in the US, and possibly some other
countries. And I do not believe (although I would be delighted to be
corrected if I'm wrong) that Software in the Public Interest currently
provides that sort of liability shield for Debian in the US.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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