Comments on the LIR WG and its role

On Friday, May 15, 1998 5:30 AM, Mike Norris[SMTP:Mike.Norris at heanet.ie] wrote:
@
@> Are the "highly competitive" LIRs "for profit" or "non profit" ?
@
@Most, but not all, would be 'for profit'.  The main exceptions would be
@national A&R networks (such as HEAnet).
@

In your opinion, how can ARIN qualify for non-profit
status with the U.S. Government's Internal Revenue
Service when clearly this is an industry "ordinarily
carried on for profit".

===

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info/eo/index.html

http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info/eo/bus-orgs.html

@@@@ http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info/eo/bl-req.html

"No part of its net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private
shareholder or individual and it may not be organized for profit or
organized to engage in an activity ordinarily carried on for profit
(even if the business is operated on a cooperative basis or produces
only sufficient income to be self-sustaining)."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Also, a company can not qualify with the IRS just because
they are a "cooperative" and spend all of the money they
bring in. This is not the definition of non-profit, yet some
people seem to think it is. When revenues go up they raise
their salaries, buy larger computers, add higher bandwidth
connections and take more trips, first-class, around the
world.

Non-profits are supposed to spend their time and money
on community out reach, to inclusive processes. They are
supposed to be educating people. They should be working
to help employ the handicap and other socially beneficial
activities which a for-profit company may not want to
support.

There are hundreds of things non-profit companies
should be doing. Raking in money to pay high salaries
to people should not be the primary goal, especially
when the company is granted a virtual monopoly on
a large part of the marketplace that has been locked-in
with no place to go, at least in the U.S.

It is good to see that RIPE in Europe appears to be
more mature in its development. I have a feeling that
the U.S. Government is going to help sort these issues
out in the U.S. in the coming weeks. Just because the
NSF helped to create a structure that does not appear
to conform to IRS regulations does not mean that it
is cast in stone. In a democracy like the U.S. the
people get to have input on the final arrangements that
are made.

The Internet is a great place for people to circulate
their views. One of these days people in the U.S. Government
may start to use it more actively. Until that happens, we
have to live with the current inefficient situation where
people fly around the world to hold a 2 hour meeting.
That is one of the reasons that the decisions take so
long. Hopefully that will change as more people use the
Internet.



-
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation - http://www.unir.net
IPv8 - Designed for the Rest of the Human Race
AM Radio Stations ---> http://www.DOT.AM