associated projects selling training material

[Jimmy Kaplowitz]

Hi Alvaro,

On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 09:57:03AM +0000, Alvaro Luna Bautista wrote:
> However, the fact is that donations does not work for us. it is more dificult
> for desktop software to get support from the big guys. 
[...]
> Selling training material would be an option for us. We are not sure whether
> is going to work but at least we would like to try.

Contrary to some assumptions people make, I don't think it would jeopardise our
tax status to sell YafaRay training materials. It's educational and can clearly
fall within SPI's approved exempt purposes. Many US nonprofits with the same
status do sell products, including the Free Software Foundation. We may,
however, have to do things like collect and remit sales tax at least for buyers
in certain US states where we have sufficient ties.

We should consult our already-very-busy lawyers to learn what we'd need to do,
but there is probably a way it could be arranged if the requirements don't make
excessive demands on our limited manpower, or if more volunteers arose to
handle some of the increased workload (hint hint).

SPI does not directly use PayPal due to various concerns, but it's possible one
of our merchant accounts could be leveraged for processing sales without us
needing to handle credit card data directly. Michael as treasurer would have
the best thoughts on the mechanics of that.

- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy at spi-inc.org