Category: MetaBrainz

The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!

After many months of hard work, the MetaBrainz Foundation has been launched! We have just issued a press release to announce the foundation. I am excited to announce our all-star board of directors: Director Dan Brickley of W3C Director Cory Doctorow of Electronic Frontier Foundation Director Joichi Ito of Neoteny Co. Ltd. Director Lawrence Lessig … Continue reading “The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!”

After many months of hard work, the MetaBrainz Foundation has been launched!
We have just issued a press release to announce the foundation.

I am excited to announce our all-star board of directors:

In the past few weeks a number of people have gone through great lengths to help me launch MetaBrainz. I’d like to thank: Dave Evans, Matthias Friedrich, Alex Dupuy, Gavin Clarke, Don Redman, John Carter, Nikki and Tarragon Allen. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Read on for the full press release!

Continue reading “The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!”

Internet Archive donates to MetaBrainz

Gordon Mohr, who is currently working at the Internet Archive was given the opportunity to donate $300 to a non-profit with a compatible mission to the Internet Archive. Gordon chose the MetaBrainz Foundation and thus we just received a check for $300. Thank you very much to both Gordon and Brewster Kahle, the driving force … Continue reading “Internet Archive donates to MetaBrainz”

Gordon Mohr, who is currently working at the Internet Archive was given the opportunity to donate $300 to a non-profit with a compatible mission to the Internet Archive. Gordon chose the MetaBrainz Foundation and thus we just received a check for $300.

Thank you very much to both Gordon and Brewster Kahle, the driving force behind the Internet Archive!

Tax-exempt recognition from the IRS

In other news, we just received our official tax-exempt notification from the IRS — this can take months or even years. With the skilled help from our lawyers we were able to do it in just over 5 weeks of time — amazing. Now that we’re completely in business, we will make an announcement to … Continue reading “Tax-exempt recognition from the IRS”

In other news, we just received our official tax-exempt notification from the IRS — this can take months or even years. With the skilled help from our lawyers we were able to do it in just over 5 weeks of time — amazing.

Now that we’re completely in business, we will make an announcement to this effect sometime in January — stay tuned!

Non-profit filing acknowledged!

The IRS has just acknowledged our non-profit tax exempt application that I filed on October 29: And with this, I should finally be able to turn on the Amazon associate ids for the site, so we can start earning a little bit more money. And there is also a Cafe Press t-shirt we can start … Continue reading “Non-profit filing acknowledged!”

The IRS has just acknowledged our non-profit tax exempt application that I filed on October 29:

And with this, I should finally be able to turn on the Amazon associate ids for the site, so we can start earning a little bit more money. And there is also a Cafe Press t-shirt we can start selling. Stay tuned!

Non-profit application filed

At long last, after many hours of work and months of time passing, I’ve FedEx’ed off the 1023 Application to the IRS. The 1023 form is the tax-exempt application to the IRS — once we get an advance ruling on our status (the final ruling will come many months down the road) we’ll be able … Continue reading “Non-profit application filed”

At long last, after many hours of work and months of time passing, I’ve FedEx’ed off the 1023 Application to the IRS. The 1023 form is the tax-exempt application to the IRS — once we get an advance ruling on our status (the final ruling will come many months down the road) we’ll be able to conduct business as a real non-profit and start handing out tax-deductible receipts for the donations we receive for MusicBrainz.

I feel confident that we’re well setup — this is mainly due to the excellent guidance I’ve received from Randy Heinig at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum Perlman & Nagelberg LLP in Chicago. Thank you very much Randy for all your patience, hard work and thorough understanding of what MusicBrainz does!

Hopefully this will also mark the point where I can spend a little less time on the non-profit and start hammering out more code for MusicBrainz — it’s sorely needed. But before I dream of that, we still need to announce this new venture. Stay tuned for more on that!

First tax-exempt application filed

I’ll jump in right now and update you on my progress. I just dropped the FTB3500 tax-exempt application to the State of California into the mail. This application is one of the two big ones that took many weeks of preparing and creating budget forecasts for the next two years. Budgets are not my strength, … Continue reading “First tax-exempt application filed”

I’ll jump in right now and update you on my progress.

I just dropped the FTB3500 tax-exempt application to the State of California into the mail. This application is one of the two big ones that took many weeks of preparing and creating budget forecasts for the next two years. Budgets are not my strength, but our Treasurer helped me with this process and we got it done. Next up is the biggest and most dreaded form — the 1023 application to the IRS.

I’ve also got the first cut at the MetaBrainz web site created — this site will detail everything about the non-profit including all donations and finances, board of directors and other non-profit stuff. Of course the new web-site is not going to be public until we’re ready to announce every last detail of the new non-profit. Stay tuned!

Oh, yeah — I also created this blog this week. Maybe tomorrow I can start hacking on advanced Picard features.