Kurt Jansson wrote:
Erik opened an account at cafepress.com a while ago: http://www.cafeshops.com/wikipedia
That's really cool! I didn't know this existed.
Maybe he can update it to the new logo without much work.
Yes, definitely.
Would it be okay for the foundation to get some money through cafepress?
I don't see why not. We would just have to charge more for each item so that the leftover money can go to the foundation.
If the answer is yes this would also be true for the Amazon partnership program, right
Uh oh - the 'A word'. There are a whole bunch of free software and/or anti-corporate zealots around here who hate Amazon and will always hate Amazon because they are a big bad corporation who uses software and business practice patents. Sadly that means we cannot partner with them unless we want to alienate many in the Wikimedia community and even risk mass defections and forks.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
Mav wrote:
Kurt Jansson wrote:
Would it be okay for the foundation to get some money through cafepress?
I don't see why not. We would just have to charge more for each item so that the leftover money can go to the foundation.
I mean, would it be a problem with our non-profit status?
If the answer is yes this would also be true for the Amazon partnership program, right
Uh oh - the 'A word'. There are a whole bunch of free software and/or anti-corporate zealots around here who hate Amazon and will always hate Amazon because they are a big bad corporation who uses software and business practice patents. Sadly that means we cannot partner with them unless we want to alienate many in the Wikimedia community and even risk mass defections and forks.
Why do we link to them then? I think it's stupid to provide a link to Amazon, but not to take the money. (Of course we shouldn't advertise for Amazon. The only difference would be that the URL gets a bit longer.)
And of course we aren't limited to Amazon, I think every big online book shop has an affiliate program. We could join all of them or at least pick one or two which have sympathies in the community (in Germany this would be lob.de, I think).
Kurt
Kurt Jansson wrote:
I don't see why not. We would just have to charge more for each item so that the leftover money can go to the foundation.
I mean, would it be a problem with our non-profit status?
No, it would not. Unrelated business income, if we have any, is potentially taxable, that's all.
Why do we link to them then? I think it's stupid to provide a link to Amazon, but not to take the money.
It's sort of a compromise, but yes, a very strange one. :-)
My own view is that it is unlikely that the Amazon link would bring in very much money anyway. It's incidental revenue at best. If I'm right, then there's no reason to have a big discussion and fight over something that wouldn't matter much anyway.
I estimate, by the way, that if we accepted google adwords ads, we could bring in $20,000-$40,000 per month right now. So if we want to have a big fight, we should fight about that. :-)
--Jimbo
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