Re: Licence Changes and Naming of a Commercial Derivative

David Pratt <david(dot)pratt(at)tidesdk(dot)org>
> The first is that the core talent of TideSDK wish to create a
> commercial derivative work called TideSDKPro. I understand that we
> cannot create a for profit commercial entity under a non profit
> organization so a comercial entity has been established. [...]

I don't think the above is always true. There are many non-profit
orgs that have for-profit commercial entities under them, including my
first serious workplace, Waterfront-Student Union Services Ltd. As
far as I know, SUS's trading profit was vital for covering the
non-profit org's running costs... as well as a way to offer students
an alternative to rip-off convenience store and chain bar prices back
then.

It may still be beneficial for the core team to have their own
commercial enterprise to support them. I'd strongly suggest that a
contributors' co-operative is an obvious model (which may actually be
non-profit, depending how one defines profit), but don't kid yourself
that you have to do it because non-profit organisations can't have
for-profit trading arms.

But are there particular (maybe NY-local) restrictions that means SPI
could not have such a social enterprise in the family somehow?

Sorry but I don't have useful answers to the other two questions
right now - just this other question, which might be useful to know
for future reference.

Thanks,
--
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/