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:
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:
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 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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T torstentorsten@social.tchncs.de shared this topic
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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:
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 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:
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 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
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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@infosec.exchange @kde@floss.social See the things listed as comparable, and ask the same thing. That should give you the answer
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N necrosis@chaos.social shared this topic
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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:
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 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:
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.