I will absolutely be going over all the details with my lawyers before
we finalize anything. I don't think that the restrictions on
political speech are all that severe for non-profits. For example,
Consumers Union is always making political statements in their
Consumer Reports magazine, calling for increased regulation of this or
that product category. And National Geographic magazine has
editorials.
I think you're just barred from campaigning in particular ways for
particular candidates. It seems unlikely that Wikipedia/Nupedia would
run afoul of that kind of thing.
<political commentary> McCain's "campaign finance reform" bill is a
disaster on this front, as I understand it. Nonprofit organizations
like Greenpeace or the NRA would be barred from running advertisements
about particular candidates for 90 days before an election. This
means that voluntary organizations designed to empower individual
political speech would be blocked from their primary mission.
Supporters of those organizations would lose the ability to
effectively make their voice known.</political commentary>
Part of the purpose of doing a nonprofit is to make it "comfortable"
for other people than me to contribute money to the project. Right
now, I pay all the bills, which is fine for now, but someday this will
grow beyond my capacity (or, my capacity may diminish!), and I
certainly don't expect that anyone will feel comfortable signing on to
donate money to my for-profit company. :-) Of course, if you feel
like donating money to Bomis, by all means, let me know and I'll make
sure you have the right address. *wink*
But when Nupedia and Wikipedia are spun off into an entity with a
non-profit charter, I think people will feel comfortable signing up
for "sponsorships", in the same way that people support local theater
groups by becoming patrons. You could be a "Bronze level" supporter
for $X per month, a "Silver level" sponsor for $Y per month, a "Gold
level" sponsor for $Z per month. All funds would go toward the improvement
of the project.
That's just an idea, but I know it can't happen as long as I'm personally
funding everything within a for-profit company.
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