{"action":"opened","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/57","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/57/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/57/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/57/events","html_url":"https://github.com/pybee/paying-the-piper/issues/57","id":118287441,"number":57,"title":"Central non-profit to collect and distribute funds","user":{"login":"nedbat","id":23789,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/23789?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat","html_url":"https://github.com/nedbat","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/nedbat/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":0,"created_at":"2015-11-22T20:45:00Z","updated_at":"2015-11-22T20:45:00Z","closed_at":null,"body":"Reading about the various ideas here \"with teeth,\" they all sound like they would be culturally unpopular, and difficult to implement.  To my mind, there's plenty of good will out there.  If we can encourage the idea that companies should voluntarily support OSS, and make it simple for them to do it, then we can start some money flowing.\r\nWhat I'm picturing is a single organization that could collect money on behalf of projects. Companies could make a donation, and indicate what member projects they use.  One simple way to indicate that is to upload a requirements.txt file :)\r\nSome divvying-up algorithm would be needed, but roughly speaking, the more money that came from companies using Project X, the more money Project X would be entitled to. (BTW: Project X could in turn donate some of their proceeds to the projects *they* use.)\r\nLots of big companies make charitable donations for no other reason than the tax write-offs and image building they provide.  These donations would be no different.  If we can publicize the donations that companies make, it will encourage other companies to similarly donate.\r\nAnd a simple economic argument can be made (\"You paid X for New Relic? Isn't Django worth at least Y?\")\r\nMaybe I'm an optimist, but I believe companies would want to support OSS projects if they had a simple way to do so.  Today, they can donate to the PSF and DSF, but what about the rest of the software they use?  If there were *one* place that would cover all their OSS funding, they wouldn't have to chase down all the ways to donate money to all the long-tail projects they use.\r\n(Sorry if this is duplicative of other ideas here, I read the ones that seemed similar.)"}}