hi david,
as with your accusations regarding the spending, my question would be
whether
you have anything to substantiate it. Seddon was clear: it did not happen,
unless perhaps a human error in a minimal number of campaigns. If you have
that then please bring that up in a *separate* thead.
you're going more and more off topic. I suggest that we return to the
question
at hand: the two stage loading problem.
lodewijk
On Mon, Sep 11, 2017 at 8:41 AM, David Emrany <david.emrany(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
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(a)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-Septe
mber/088570.html
Regards
Seddon
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