Future of .org is to be decided soon

Mon Jul 15 19:22:32 PDT 2002

Quoting Chuck Yerkes (chuck at snew.com):

> Um, not really.  802.11's (or whatever the nonprofit des is :)
> aren't permitted to lobby congress/feds in certain ways.

{snort}

501(c)(3) -- which is the applicable section in the Internal Revenue Code.

> Does the baylisa org want to get involved in this?

IANAL.  TINLA.

My understanding is that 501(c)(3) organisations are barred from (1)
acting in any way to influence legislation or (2) being involved in
political activities (basically, elections).  Further, activities must
be germane to the organisation's tax-exempt purpose.

The awarding of .org certainly isn't an election to fill a public
office, nor is it legislation in the usual sense of the term, _but_ it
is at least awfully close to Federal administrative law (regulations
passed by the Executive Branch to implement enabling legislation) --
in the sense that ICANN operates under a Memorandum of Understanding
from the USA Commerce Department.  Anyhow, that's enough to make me 
as a Board member uncomfortable, and I'll say no (to the question 
posed) irrespective of other merits.

http://www.irs.gov/exempt/charitable/display/0,,i1%3D3%26i2%3D18%26genericId%3D6874,00.html

-- 
Cheers,            There are only 10 types of people in this world -- 
Rick Moen          those who understand binary arithmetic and those who don't.
rick at linuxmafia.com