This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
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@kde We have a petition https://www.borgerforslag.dk/se-og-stoet-forslag/?Id=FT-22237 running in Denmark on the "official" petition website. If it reaches 50k signatures, the parliament is required to discuss it.
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
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Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde Isn't this now at least the second petition for this on a third-party platform that collects your data for an uncertain outcome? Why not use the official Bundestag e-Petition system? That way: No intermediary is involved that collects your data and, when making it an official Bundestag petition, parliament has to discuss it when it has collected a certain number of signatures.
Also, why is it in English? While there are some German citizens that don't speak German, there may be a lot more that don't speak English.
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
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Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
Great initiative!
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@kde Isn't this now at least the second petition for this on a third-party platform that collects your data for an uncertain outcome? Why not use the official Bundestag e-Petition system? That way: No intermediary is involved that collects your data and, when making it an official Bundestag petition, parliament has to discuss it when it has collected a certain number of signatures.
Also, why is it in English? While there are some German citizens that don't speak German, there may be a lot more that don't speak English.
@hopfgeist@digitalcourage.social @kde@floss.social Ich stimme dir da vollumfänglich zu, solch eine Petition gehört eigentlich auf den Internetauftritt des Bundestages.
Es gibt aber zumindest eine deutsche Version der Petition hier. -
This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde what's sad is that it's not on the official federal parlament petitions portal, so it'll be consequence-free ignored eveb if it would smash the 30k quota instantly.
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
It's hard for me to see what that should look like. If I work on a personal project with no other users, is that volunteer work? How is that different from working in my own front garden (is that volunteering in Germany)?
If my employer releases my work as F/OSS, can they count my time as volunteering for any tax purposes? What about if it's a F/OSS component that is useful only in conjunction with some non-Free thing that they sell?
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It's hard for me to see what that should look like. If I work on a personal project with no other users, is that volunteer work? How is that different from working in my own front garden (is that volunteering in Germany)?
If my employer releases my work as F/OSS, can they count my time as volunteering for any tax purposes? What about if it's a F/OSS component that is useful only in conjunction with some non-Free thing that they sell?
@david_chisnall It's similar to charity work. There are definitions what counts as such, entry criteria and assessments. The goal, as I understand it, is to make FLOSS work first of all eligible to be classified as Volunteer Work.
@kde -
@david_chisnall It's similar to charity work. There are definitions what counts as such, entry criteria and assessments. The goal, as I understand it, is to make FLOSS work first of all eligible to be classified as Volunteer Work.
@kdeIt's similar to charity work
So qualifying F/OSS projects will require a load of compliance work that doesn't make sense unless your turnover in donations is large?
I'm not familiar with what counts as volunteer work in general for tax / legal purposes in Germany.
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It's similar to charity work
So qualifying F/OSS projects will require a load of compliance work that doesn't make sense unless your turnover in donations is large?
I'm not familiar with what counts as volunteer work in general for tax / legal purposes in Germany.
@david_chisnall I don't know the intricacies either, but I'm sure there will be some amount of red tape. No free lunch, but at least it would be an option.
@kde -
This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde and where's the petition that actually has a chance of achieving anything?
Where's the parliamentary e-petition?
Because petitions on whatever platforms are pointless. Petitions filed with the Bundestag petition committee actually force the parliament to discuss them if they pass the threshold.
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@kde@floss.socia
I know little of legal matters. One thing about the American situation for FLOSS, that I learned from @pluralistic but I forgot where I read it, is that open source projects have to be "educational" projects in order to qualify for status as non-profit organizations. I've long had the impression that US tax law is designed to aggressively prevent competition between the non-profit sector and the for-profit sector, and absolutely rule out competition between the public sector and the private sector.
@tdforg @gnome @Blender @fedora @Krita @kdenlive @videolan @fsfe
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde A very good endeavour, I hope this succeeds.
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@DoctorG_1 hi. I sent the link to the Danish petition on the official Danish site?
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde can legal residents sign it as well, or only citizens?
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@kde nope i don't. in my country they care mostly about using american tech (gafam), and where funding OSS (not saying about FLOSS)…
@hacknorris @kde just because the government is shitty doesn't mean there aren't grassroots initiatives to push FOSS usage…
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@hacknorris @kde just because the government is shitty doesn't mean there aren't grassroots initiatives to push FOSS usage…
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This petition wants contributing to Free Software to be legally and officially recognized as volunteering in Germany on the same level as youth work or ambulance service:
Recognition of Work on Open-Source as Volunteering in Germany - Online-Petition
Open-Source-Software builds the foundations of digital infrastructure in big parts - in administration, economy, science and daily life. Even the current coalition agreement of the Federal Government mentions Open-Source-Software as a fundamental building block for the achievement of digital sovereignty. However, the work done by thousands of volunteers for this goal is not recognised as volunteering, neither fiscally nor in terms of funding. This imbalance between societal importance and legal
openPetition (www.openpetition.de)
This would bring fiscal and funding advantages for FLOSS organizations and the volunteers themselves.
If you are a German citizen, please sign the petition and let's get our volunteers the recognition they deserve!
---
Photo credit: Redazione Cultura. distributed under CC By SA license
@kde It really seems worth supporting, not sure why it would need my home adress though...
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@hacknorris @kde just found this lovely comparison… "it ain't that bad" it seems?
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@hacknorris @kde just found this lovely comparison… "it ain't that bad" it seems?
@wojtek wai-
THAT'S FROM PROTON??? -
@kde@floss.socia
I know little of legal matters. One thing about the American situation for FLOSS, that I learned from @pluralistic but I forgot where I read it, is that open source projects have to be "educational" projects in order to qualify for status as non-profit organizations. I've long had the impression that US tax law is designed to aggressively prevent competition between the non-profit sector and the for-profit sector, and absolutely rule out competition between the public sector and the private sector.
@tdforg @gnome @Blender @fedora @Krita @kdenlive @videolan @fsfe
