[Foundation-l] Politico: "Wikimedia foundation hires lobbyists on sopa, pipa"

[geni]

On 22 January 2012 18:00, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 22, 2012 at 12:33 PM, Pedro Sanchez <pdsanchez at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'm worried that we may be getting in trouble.
>> I don't know about US laws, but are charitable organizations allowed
>> to meddle in political lobbying?
>>
>> I'd appreciate if more knowledgeable people could give us some light.
>
> It's perfectly allowed, and we're allowed to take positions on
> specific bills - it is just that lobbying cannot be a 'substantial
> part' of the WMF's activities unless it switches its charity type.
> (Googling around, I was reading
> http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=12202
> and http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopicp97.pdf )
>

What is highly questionable is if it a remotely worthwhile use of
money. If Google's lobbyists can't impact SOPA and the like what makes
the foundation think our can?


-- 
geni