[python-committers] Pace of change for Python 3.x

[A.M. Kuchling]

On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 01:58:42PM +0100, Nick Coghlan wrote:
> Software maintenance is a commercial support activity that is normally
> done for profit, so the PSF needs to be careful in how it approaches
> it to avoid getting in trouble with the IRS (public interest charities
> like the PSF operate under different taxation rules from trade
> associations like the Linux and OpenStack Foundations, and hence have
> a different set of constraints on their activities).

This only seems true if "software maintenance" in the above means
something like "writing contracts and taking money to apply bugfixes
within certain guaranteed SLAs".

If "software maintenance" = "paying someone a salary to apply bugfixes
to an old branch", that activity seems to clearly fall into a 501c3's
purview under the categorizations of "advancement of education or
science" or "erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or
works". [*]

I mean, if funding software maintenance is illegal for a 501c3, then
the FSF, Software Conservancy, Software in the Public Interest, Django
Foundation, NumFOCUS, etc. are probably all illegal.

(At some point this thread probably needs to move to
psf-discuss-public or whatever it is.)

--amk

[*] https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exempt-purposes-internal-revenue-code-section-501c3