On 11/03/2008, Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com wrote:
I can think of several reasons why the Foundation remains a non profit. If we switched to a Corporation, this would;
- Remove tax deductible status (Think taxation, big time)
- Undermine crediblity as a free compendium of knowledge
- Create a big legal mess. WF would have to define stockholders which would disenfranchise several million users. In addition, these new stockholders would have a tax mess on their hands.
- Open us up to SEC scrutiny
The GFDL means it's perfectly possible to dissolve the foundation and sell off the servers. Not going for a proper revenue stream because you would actually have to pay tax on the profits sounds a bit of an odd suggestion.
So the non-profit status of Google "undermines credibility as a free compendium of knowledge"? How does that work? If I look something up on Google Scholar or Google Books, how does this undermining happen, how will I notice that it's happening?
Could you explain about the SEC?