[Foundation-l] Honorarium (was Re: [Found>, > This conversation had jumped back and forth ....)

Sat Aug 12 23:26:39 UTC 2006

On 8/13/06, Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Tim Starling <t.starling at physics.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these honoraria essentially Jimmy's only
> > means of income? I don't know if he draws a salary from Wikia, but I'm
> > fairly sure that the company is not yet turning a profit. He works almost
> > full-time publicising Wikimedia. It would seem very strange to me to deny
> > him this one small token of our appreciation.
>
> His income from other places is not at all something we need consider.
> What matters is the use of Wikimedia-owned trademarks and logos
> for monetary gain. The foundation owns and controls the use of those
> trademarks and logos and, per our bylaws, board members are not
> supposed to get net monetary gain for activities that arise from being
> board members.

Sorry, but I think you're going over the top. Giving Speeches has
nothing to do with trademarks. Even if the name "Wikipedia" is
mentioned in the program, this is completely legal (fair use or
similar laws outside the US).

Regarding Jimbo: He is the founder of Wikipedia. He is not famous
because he's a board member. He's famous because without him the
Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the corresponding trademarks
wouldn't even exist.

This said, I have absolutely no problem if Jimbo gets money when he
talks about Wikipedia, or even the Wikimedia Foundation - as long as
he (and this is where his responsability as a Wikimedia official
begins) doesn't just pick the $$$ talks. IMHO it would also be wise to
donate some amout of his speaker fees to Wikimedia. But I'm sure you
can't find a bureaucratic solution for this, it has to be settled on a
case-by-case basis.

This has long been debated within Wikimedia Deutschland. In the end we
agreed on a policy that all board members have to inform the board
about all their talks (including fees and reimbursements), so the
board can review it from time to time.

Cheers,
Arne