precisions in translation - Wikipedia-l

12 Nov 2003

Jimbo said 
...
 > What would be required for the
> existing Wikimedia Foundation to register as a
>French nonprofit, or to
> setup a French affiliate organization. 
Yann answered
...
 Set up a French non profit is very simple. You need
three people (a president, 
a secretary and a treasurer), to draft some status
(many exemples are 
available on the Net) and to pay about 25 euros for
registration. I have done 
this already several times. 
I think this is not what Jimbo asked. He asked how the
currently american foundation could register a
"filiale" (related society) in France, so to be able
to pay for hosting server, receive donation, purchase
domain name.

I think you answered only on how to set a regular
foundation, which is different.
I think he is looking for information about how
setting a "filiale" is possible, not a french
organisation. This is the notion of "association
�trang�re" where the main part of the society is out
of our territory.

What are the legal requirements to do that ?

...
   > * special
links between this French law
>organisation should have with the
> Wikimedia foundation; 
> The Wikimedia Foundation owns all rights to the
>'Wikimedia' and
> 'Wikipedia' trademarks, and it is going to be best
>if this new
> organization is fully 100% under the control of the
>parent
> organization.  This does not preclude local
>organization and control
> to an extent, but the Wikimedia Foundation must be
>the decision maker
> of last resort. 
...
 > This is necessary to prevent a split in the
future
>that would be bad
> for the project. 

...
 I agree totally with that. It just needs to be
mentioned in the status. 
I do not think that *just* mentioning it in the status
is enough to define an foreign association. Otherwise,
the french association and the "foreigh association"
would not be legally differently defined. No ?

...
 And the status could mention that you would be ex
officio member of the French 
non profit as the founder of Wikipedia. 
That would be nice, but if wikipedia france is not
really legally related to wikimedia, I do not think a
member will have more weight on it that another.

...
 > On the other hand, I am willing to provide one,
at
>my own expense, if
> it is the consensus of Europeans that it would be a
>good thing. 
...
 The Ouvaton cooperative said that they will provide
one. 
Jimbo is suggesting that HE (or the foundation) pays
for a server for Europe. Are you answering that
Ouvaton would donate a server to the french
association ? Or that Ouvato would lease one in
exchange of a fee?

If wikimedia can provide a server itself, and be the
owner of it, rather than doing a location, would not
it be best ?

...
 > A non profit organisation in France or in Europe
>could also help to
> receive tax deductible donations and to ease money
>transfers. 
...
  Yes.  I would imagine that it's not that
difficult
to setup an
 affiliate organization there. 
...
  In the U.S., we have Alex who has volunteered to act
for free as our
 lawyer, and he is helping me finalize all the bylaws
for the US
 organization. 
Will donations made to a french association,
transferred to an american one, tax deductible in the
US ?

...
 >Can you help me look for a French or European
lawyer
>who can do the same over there? 
...
 Yes, I can, but it is usually not necessary to set up
a French non profit. 
Please do Yann. It is not setting up an association
that is difficult, it is to set up the relationship
with the main one that is.

It would be nice to know how the huge ngos for example
do in this kind of situation.

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