[Foundation-l] what do we do in the event the Foundation fails? - Re: Pol...

[Ray Saintonge]

daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:

>Such an agreement woudl require IRS approval, something it is not likely to  
>receive. 
> 
>In a message dated 4/18/2007 6:06:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
>erik at wikimedia.org writes:
>
>IANAL,  but since it would be a very limited agreement ("In the event
>of WMF being  unable to continue operations for a period of 4 weeks,
>organization X is  given permission to .." - use the brand, user
>account data, etc.) I don't  see why not. It would be not fundamentally
>different from a trademark use  agreement.
>
>If we want to reach an agreement like this with a chapter,  we should
>carefully consider the impact of different jurisdictions on  the
>projects, though. EU is a mess of jurisdictions, and the Germans  seem
>to be quite litigious, for  example.
>
If WMF were to go bust, I don't see how its permissions would be 
relevant any longer.  If this were a part of a bankruptcy, I can imagine 
that a bankruptcy trustee might want to treat it as an asset.  A clause 
in the agreements providing that in the event of dissolution or other 
alienation of WMF, all duly incorporated chapters would become soul 
legal successors in their respective countries.

I don't think that IRS approval would matter except to a US chapter if 
one did exist.  These new operations would be in several different 
countries where there is no obligation to follow IRS rules. 

As Erik suggests though, any such arrangement should be subject to 
having considered possible untoward complications before being adopted

Ec