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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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!
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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
-
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 Oh, this is really cool!
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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
For some reason it doesnt like my mail adress... -
@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.
It made me wonder whether this "OpenPetition" wasn't some shady data collection endeavour.
What is the point in collecting home addresses, if this is an unofficial petition with no public entity confirming addresses?
Why can only German citizens participate?
For official petitions to the Federal Parliament (also quorum 30K persons), neither citizenship nor residence within the country is required.
It all seems to be a great idea, but the platform makes me suspicious.
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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's just nice to see three young people looking so happy about anything to do with free software.
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It made me wonder whether this "OpenPetition" wasn't some shady data collection endeavour.
What is the point in collecting home addresses, if this is an unofficial petition with no public entity confirming addresses?
Why can only German citizens participate?
For official petitions to the Federal Parliament (also quorum 30K persons), neither citizenship nor residence within the country is required.
It all seems to be a great idea, but the platform makes me suspicious.
-
@kde It really seems worth supporting, not sure why it would need my home adress though...
@stiller_leser @kde According to https://www.bundestag.de/ausschuesse/a02_Petitionsausschuss/verfahrensgrundsaetze-1075826 it's required when addressing the German national parliament for a petition electronically, that's of course not a proof you really support the cause, but they can do some plausibility checks.
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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 does the current text kind of imply that all open source software is of public benefit? I'm missing a qualifier here maybe - there can be shitty open source software made with shitty intentions, and I wouldn't like to see that included.
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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 FYI, copyright of this image is @fsfe, original source here: https://fsfe.org/activities/ilovefs/whylovefs/gallery.html
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
