Is the org a consumers cooprotive?

[DDramone]

sorry, i didnt really know where to put this questions, but I'm minoring in economics and im really intrested in alternative ways of orgonizing a company or a firm, so i've been really intersted in coopratives were all employees are owners and have equal say, or when a product is supplied for free (like the org) and relies on donations from it's consumers. consumer coopratives are usually non-profit.

so, is a-m-v.org a consumers cooprative? can it get some kind of tax brakes or even subsidies?

[Orwell]

Even though this site is not for profit, donations to this site are not tax decuctable because this site is not a charity (donations to charities are tax deductable).

There is no way the org will recieve subsidaries, unless.... oh wait, you know, the org should try. With the current government, who knows. We could say all video editors who get above/below a certain star range are terrorists and communists and send all their information to homeland security. They'd completely gloss over the fact that the entire purpose of this site is illegal fanwork.

Concerning the org as a corporation, I believe Phade only did that so that he can recieve donations without it interfering in his other financial matters. This site is, at least in my opinion and understanding of consumer cooperatives, is not one.

In organizing a company, it really depends on your product or service. The problem I see with consumer cooperatives is that the employees finances are in every matter tied to the survival of the company. If business is slow, or your service isn't in demand, the stock price goes down, so all of their investments go down, and what can they do? They're required to own part of the company, so they can't just sell and get out without leaving their job. They can't 'improve' if the market doesn't supply a demand. Of course, the company could branch out to try to create a either a vertical or horizontal company, maybe both ways, so that the customers service is all with one company, or else they control everything from step one to the final product so that they can cut costs spent on obtaining the resources, but if the capital isnt' there to begin with, and they can't find a venture capital, maybe a business loan, but if the expansion flops, you've just dug a deeper hole. I would say its a model to consider for something in the medical field, care or something along that line of service, especially with the predicted growth as the baby boomers age.

Relying on donations alone means you need very minimal costs in relations to the size of the consumer population.

Just out of curiousity, what's your major?

[DDramone]

actually, my major's history, which im not really gonna do anything with b/c im trying to be an editor. right now ive got an internship with a freelance editor who is working on a project on the history channel.

anyways, you're totally right about your criticisms of cooperatives, but i think that the criticisms you posted are more relevant to workers cooperatives, or "labor managed firms" then consumer cooperatives. i know alot more about workers cooperatives and i think your right, but it's my understanding that a consumer cooperative is something were consumers actually own the firm. in saying this i might have answered my own question on whether or not the org is a consumers cooperative, but i think that it could adopt some qualities of a consumers cooprative that might actually help it.

I think becoming a complete consumers cooperative would probably mean restricting membership to donators, at least in either the hosting of AMVs or downloading privileges, which isnt something the org would wanna do, but, although it turns out that the US gov has very little legislation about how to deal with cooperatives (other then credit unions) there are other private companies or guilds (like the American cinema Editors union) that might back us financially, and maybe even give us some legal protection. I know that the AFL-CIO actually has programs to help workers coops and back them financially. so if the org qualifies as coop status, or at least has some semblance of coop qualities, there might be a chanse of other people backing us.

anyways, i know im probably being really naive, esspesually considering the legal grey area AMVs are in, but a non-profit consumer coop status could infact lead to more legal (and financial) status. an example is all the consumer coop radio stations that, although playing copyrighted music usually isnt their main product, might use a piece of copyrighted music as an intro to a radio show or something without any real legal permission. these people are getting protection partly because theyre not playing the whole song, but also because there is a feeling among some circles that coops should be protected.

on a side note, not to get to off topic, the inflexibility in workers coops you were talking about can, to at least some degree, be remedied by grouping a bunch of workers coops around a central bank that acts like a credit union. therefore, the coops investment is based on credit, not directly the worth of the company. a great example of this is the Mondragon cooperative corporation in spain, which is the 9th largest company in spain and the 1st largest in the Basque region of spain.

I'd love to talk about workers coops with ya through PMs if you're interested.

[Garylisk]

Nah. A-M-V.org is a non-profit organization, but there are definite people in charge. The community as a whole has some sway in how things are run, but for the most part it's run by a select few.

[Kalium]

Nah. A-M-V.org is a non-profit organization, but there are definite people in charge.

Actually, the Org is an s-corp. Phade says the paperwork was easier.

[godix]

Somehow the thought of giving control to the org to the same masses that post four or five youtube threads and a couple hundred naruto vids a week gives me the cold shivers.