Dear Joseph
Thanks for that link.
*NB*: I hope that the list moderators shall not censor / block / unduly delay this important internal conversation we are having concerning WMF self-financing model.
Since this concerns the WMF fund-raising drives of Nov-Dec 2016, I'm linking to the following messages
1. *[Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for FY 2014-2015 now on-wiki* https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-May/084254.html
*"WMF's sheer wastage of donated money (incl. lunch money from Scottish schoolkids) on unnecessary litigation, I cite that the single most prominent case they defended in the period was apparently a domain name dispute (said to billed at US$ 317,490) in which the opposite party (a Wikipedian of long standing) who had only booked the domain name to prevent it from being snaffled by "cyber squatters" had immediately offered to donate it WMF free of cost before the case began. Had WMF accepted that voluntary and good faith donation offer, they would have also got back 75% of the filing fees (a not insubstantial amount).
Dave"*
2. *Reply by Greg Varnum (WMF) on this mailing list* https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016-May/084276.html
*"As for the question about why the Wikimedia Foundationspent $317,490 fighting "cybersquatters" that offeredto donate the domain in dispute: We’re not sure where this question comes from, as we haven’t dealt with a case that fits this description. We do not fight cybersquatters who offer to donate their domains (especially if they are community members),and, to date, we have not spent anything approachingthat much money on this type of case."*
3. *Your donation keeps Wikipedia and free knowledge thriving* https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/29/wikimedia-foundation-annual-fundraiser/
"Legal defense to preserve your right to access, share, and remix knowledge, including court battles won over Wikimedia content in Brazil https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/09/14/rosanah-fienngo/, Germany https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/08/09/victory-germany-appeal-dismissed/, France https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/06/20/france-legal-victory/, and India."
including unreplied comments on why the India court battles were not linked unlike the others So to sum up:
1. The WMF form 990 says US law firm "JonesDay" received US$ 1,742,916 for legal services in 2014-15
2. WMF is unprepared to specifically inform the community how much of that was spent on fighting a specific "cyber-squatter" from India (my own sources at the time said US$ 300,000 was paid by WMF to JonesDay for this case, mainly billable hours for JD partner Carrie Kiedrowski).
3. WMF is unprepared to specifically inform the community whether or not this cyber squatter (who claims to be a community member since 2003) had straightaway offered to donate the domain name free of cost to the WMF and close the case, however, WMF rejected the offer and instead ran up huge legal bills which were financed by donations, and probably continues to do so since that case is still ongoing in India's legal system .
4. I distinctly recall that when I was in India in mid-November 2016, attending the Opendaylight Linux forum in Bengaluru and incidentally discussing there the progress of this legal case with the other party who was an attendee, I was bombarded with WMF donation banner-ads, as a logged-in user, which carried through till mid-December 2016 when I was at Sri Lanka and Kathmandu but which curiously stopped when I reached Austraila.
5. So, as a community member and contributor, I would like to know how every dollar raised by WMF is collected, and also spent thereafter.
Warmly
David
On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Joseph Seddon josephseddon@gmail.com wrote:
Hi David,
I would refer to my answer I gave on the forked thread relating to this topic.
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2017- September/088570.html
Regards Seddon
On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 3:46 PM, David Emrany david.emrany@gmail.com wrote:
Sure Lodewijk,
Banners from December 2016: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inline_donor_bannerbass.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Inline_ donor_bannerbass.png
Comments from Seddon https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2016- December/085612.html
Perhaps these banners were muted for logged-in users in USA, but I was in S-E Asia last December and it was a very unpleasant experience for me, especially while on mobile and logged in, to get a begging banner/pop-up about after every 4 pages I loaded.
David
On 9/6/17, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Hi David,
Would you mind elaborating on the first point? I vaguely recall test banners being shown to logged in users, but don't recall seeing one
myself
while logged in for a while.
Best, Lodewijk
On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 2:16 PM, David Emrany david.emrany@gmail.com
wrote:
a) This is incorrect b) how many years would "for several years" encompass?
David
On 9/5/17, Joseph Seddon jseddon@wikimedia.org wrote:
WMF hasn't shown fundraising banners to logged in users for several
years.
Regards Seddon
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