[Wikipedia-l] Re: foundation of a German registered association

[Ivo Köthnig]

> Consider this possibility, 20 years from now.  The international
> Wikimedia Foundation is publishing a nice print version of the
> Encyclopedia in French, for sale in France.  This is a profitable
> venture, so that it is generating funds for whatever copyediting and
> production work that may be necessary to supplement the work of
> volunteers, as well as generating funds that permits the free
> distribution of the same work to schools in poor districts in France
> and in poor countries where French is a dominant language.
>
> But, at that time, 20 years from now, the French foundation board
> thinks it would be nice to have a fancy job and an office and to have
> that revenue for expenditures on whatever, and so they sue the
> international foundation over the publication of the French edition
> using the Wikipedia name.
>
> That's just one example, I'm sure you can immediately think of many
> more.
>
> There is no reason to think that the current group of people involved
> in Wikipedia would do any of that, but we must plan for the longterm,
> for what might happen 50 or 100 years from now, after we are all gone.
> Institutional decisions made today have ramifications many many years
> into the future, especially if we are not cautious.

But what makes you sure that, the situation is not exactly reverse? In that 
case it may would be very good to have an independent french organisation, 
which fight for the original goals?

Ivo Köthnig