Re: Q: Debian as a registered organization

On 4/5/26 7:42 PM, Harlan Lieberman-Berg wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 5, 2026 at 6:39 PM Thomas Goirand <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
> 
>     Let's say the legal entity is declared illegal or dissolved by a judge.
>     The whole Debian project (and each of us) would be in danger if we were
>     to attempt ignoring the judge decision and continue to contribute to
>     Debian (at least, that's how it works in France).
> 
> 
> IANAL, but my understanding is that is not necessarily how it works in 
> the different jurisdictions of the US.  Debian is (probably) considered 
> something called an unincorporated association, and only some US states 
> consider those separate entities from the individuals who comprise 
> them.  In the states that don't consider them separate, all volunteers 
> could potentially be held personally responsible for the actions of the 
> organization.  (The case law on this varies about how involved you need 
> to have been with whatever action was taken; some, simply being an 
> active part of the organization is sufficient.)


This is a key deterministic in the manner of decisions surrounding how 
to brace, defend, and/or prepare the project from legal actions against 
'Unincorporated Associations' (RUUNAA & 28a U.S. Code Court Rule 23.2 
vs. actual applications of Case Law surrounding 'Diversity Jurisdiction' 
(III.S2.C1.3.5. U.S.).

This is something I imagine to likely be replicated in other countries, 
though I cannot testify to such.

This area can get rather complicated, ideally this thread should include 
the counsel of SPI in order that we can establish an actual 
understanding of what would be either a defensive or offensive strategy 
or both in parallel.

I would ask for the pausing this dialogue until the conversation of 
desire vs. legality occurs specific to legal counsel which we have 
access toward. From there we push towards a concentrated direction in 
the offensive or build walls in the defensive.