4 ms·
Non-profit legal entity for Mastodon being registered in Germany
- chalst 6y agoFor those like me who did not recognise the business incorporation class gGmbH, Wikipedia can help. I did recognise the last bit: bH means limited liability. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesellschaft_mit_beschr%C3%A4nkter_Haftung https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesellschaft_mit_beschr%C3%A...
- app4soft 6y agoThere are a lot of other than https://mastodon.social https://mastodon.social instances in other jurisdictions — how toots data would work between all of them now, as German has way different privacy policy requirements for social networks.
- sascha_sl 6y agoThe class itself is GmbH, which is generally equivalent to an LLC and is the most common incorporation form if you're not public but still have the required starting capital (25000 EUR). The gGmbH is essentially the same, but all spending needs to be in tune with the non-profit purpose in return for tax benefits.
- tasubotadas 6y agoIt's amazing that is never (not even on the website) explained what mastadon is.
- input_sh 6y agoYou're looking at the wrong place, look here: https://joinmastodon.org/ https://joinmastodon.org/ mastodon.social is a server running it, it's not the main website of the project.
- sascha_sl 6y agoAdditionally, right in the center of the footer of every instance, there's a big "What is Mastodon" link
- sneak 6y agoAre they raising money, or hiring people? To what end is this action being undertaken?
- solarkraft 6y agoThis hasn't been announced yet AFAIK, but it's certainly something you'd want to do if you were planning such things. Additional reasons, besides slightly reducing the bus factor and limiting liability (pretty useful when you plan to make major financial commitments like hiring someone), are probably tax benefits: gGmbHs, in exchange for being non-profits, enjoy fairly high tax benefits, which a normal independent worker does not.