zlacker

>>numeri+(OP)
As a German working with charities, this petition doesn't make any sense/is not specific enough to know what they actually want. There is no such thing as getting an activity recognized as volunteering. You either volunteer for a registered charity, or you don't. Nobody cares what you do for a charity, whether you write code for it or clean the toilets doesn't matter for recognition.

The petition only makes legal sense if it were to ask to extend the set of charitable goals as specified in the Abgabenordnung, but the existing set already allows for FOSS projects as part of e.g. the "national education" category (public code is educative).

And, to be frank, I also don't get the "recognition" part. The tangible benefits of volunteering for a charity are limited; what does it even mean to get recognition for it.

>>rendx+vz
> but the existing set already allows for FOSS projects as part of e.g. the "national education" category (public code is educative)

It may be educative but that is hardly the most significant way in which open source code is beneficial to society.

>>accoun+ZW
The context here is German law and the specific categories within the law an activity needs to be argued to fit in, not perceived or real benefit to society in a broader sense. "Adult education" is one of these categories, and it is proven to be accepted by German tax authorities for open source work.

Dependent on the project, other categories might work too. The list is in Abgabenordnung §52 ( https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ao_1977/__52.html ) / Fiscal Code Section 52 Public benefit purposes ( https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_ao/englisch_ao.p... )

(Contrary to intuition, "advancement of science and research" is very hard to get accepted in unless you're a university or at least publish papers in journals. And while the law claims that in theory other purposes could be argued for, in practice tax authorities will simply stick to the list and not make exceptions.)

>>rendx+Lo2
Yes, and we should make whatever changes are needed to recognize the actual contributions of open source projects to the commons instead of trying to backdoor such projects into recognition as education.