[Wikipedia-l] Dream a little...

Wed Oct 18 18:15:02 UTC 2006

On 10/18/06, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 18/10/06, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>
> > No. Copyrights are only deductible to the extent of the basis in the
> > property (essentially how much you spent to obtain it). For copyrights
> > purchased from someone else you might also be able to deduct any net income
> > which the charity makes off the copyright. See the American Jobs Creation
> > Act of 2004.
>
> So *that's* what the "basis" is. I was finding that detail
> surprisingly hard to figure out!
>
> Hmm.
>
> "If you donate a patent or other intellectual property ... your
> deduction is limited to the basis of the property or the fair market
> value of the property, whichever is less." - IRS Publication 526.
>
> So does this mean that it's considered valueless until someone has
> bought or sold it - it has no basis until then? I can sort of see how
> this might happen, but it seems conceptually odd on some level...
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray

Well, I hear that's one definition of value economics uses - what
someone is willing to pay for something.

Although suppose I wrote an article and sold a guaranteed licensed
free and vandalism free copy to some project like Citizendium or the
Encyclopedia Project, and I donated the copyright to the Wikimedia
Foundation: would that then be deductible?

--Gwern