Who can ensure that Codeberg won’t be taken over by some larger company in the future? Happend to others already …
In order for a company to be “taken over” it needs to be on the stock market, or in a position to be sold.
Codeberg is not a company, it is a “registered club” (Eingetragener Verein) under german law.
Private companies can be sold. There is no need for them to be listed on a stock market. In fact, as the owners age it is normal for a private company to be sold, or closed down.
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Codeberg is not a club. It is a company (a separate legal entity) which is not permitted to allow its members to benefit from any profits it might make. There is, however, nothing to stop it giving away its assets, or just simply closing down.
It’s probably safe enough, but it’s not immune to misfeasance, or even malfeasance.
No it is not a company. Please actually look it up before spreading misinformation.
Nephele, English is not your first language, and you are therefore probably unaware that the word company has a variety of meanings, and companies can take a variety of forms.
Some companies are intended to make profits for their members, and some, like Codeberg, are not. The latter may, in Germany take the form of an EV. However, it is still a company in the sense that it is a legal entity in its own right, and its members cannot be held liable for its debts.
As a company it has a constitution, and is able to own and sell property (including intellectual property). It could also close down.
So the code of Codeberg (the product) could end up in other hands. And that is the point.
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A legal entity and a company are not the same thing. Codeberg is a legal entity, but it is not a company. The distinction is important because not-for-profit or non-profit companies also exist under german law, and codeberg is neither.
This is the part that as a result of this is wrong, for severall reasons. For one codeberg has a charter that would prevent this.
And for another under european law there is no way to loose copyright under works you created. You can license them sure, but that does not prevent you from licensing them in the future.
I’ve already linked the charter to read above.
Nephele,
You are still insisting on defining the word “company” in a very restrictive way. That might work in German, but it doesn’t work in English. Life is more complicated than you seem to think.
Now, two questions;
1 Are you saying that the charter can’t be changed? And if you are saying that, are you sure?
2 What happens to the assets if Codeberg runs out of money and closes down?
You have no clue about german forms of law, and what the difference is between a company and a e.V. And I don’t care to educate you. I’ve given you all the links to the Information already for you to read up on.
Regardless, this is irrelevant to the discussion in this channel.
If you know more about German law than me, please answer my questions. They arose from your claim that Codeberg couldn’t end up in the control of other parties, and so far you have produced absolutely no evidence to support that claim.
So in the absence of such evidence, I have to conclude that Codeberg CAN be sold or given away, and that your original assertion was incorrect.
I’ve literally given you ressources to READ. If you refuse to do that, you can’t be helped. But then your conclusion is made from incorrect data and irrelevant. Which is unimportant to me.
Again, This is offtopic. take it somewhere else.
I have read it. I saw nothing to support what you say.
LOL, didn’t intend this to end up in a seperate thread 
It was only a “thought” which triggered by something as had happend with freenode (in my head) 
Either you did not read it or did not understand.
§ 9 Stimmrecht und Beschlußfähigkeit
(1) Jedes stimmberechtigte Mitglied hat eine Stimme. Das Stimmrecht ist nicht übertragbar.
(2) Jede ordnungsgemäß einberufene Mitgliederversammlung ist beschlussfähig.
(3) Die Mitgliederversammlung fasst ihre Beschlüsse mit einfacher Mehrheit. Bei Stimmengleichheit gilt der gestellte Antrag als abgelehnt.
(4) Für Satzungsänderungen und Beschlüsse zur Auflösung des Vereins ist eine Zweidrittelmehrheit der abgegebenen Stimmen erforderlich. Über Satzungsänderungen kann in der Mitgliederversammlung nur abgestimmt werden, wenn auf diesen Tagesordnungspunkt bereits in der Einladung (im Rahmen der satzungsgemäßen Frist) zur Mitgliederversammlung hingewiesen wurde und der Einladung der bisherige und der vorgesehene neue Satzungstext beigefügt sind.
§ 14 Auflösung des Vereins
(1) Bei Auflösung des Vereins oder bei Wegfall seiner bisherigen gemeinnützigen Zwecke fällt das Vermögen des Vereins an eine Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts oder an eine als steuerbegünstigt besonders anerkannte Körperschaft, die es unmittelbar und ausschließlich für die Förderung der Bildung im Sinne der Satzung zu verwenden hat. Den Empfänger bestimmt die Mitgliederversammlung zugleich mit dem Beschluss zur Auflösung des Vereins.
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You omitted one other possibility:
I DID read what you posted, I DID understand it, and NONE OF IT supports your assertion that Codeberg code can’t be disposed of to another party.
The first section you quoted (No 9) is irrelevant.
The second section (No 14) describes what happens to surplus assets when all the liabilities have been settled. A very common reason for a company (and an eV IS a company - see below) closing down is because it becomes insolvent. When that happens, all its assets are sold off to pay its debts. ONLY once all liabilities have been settled can the remaining assets (if any) be disposed of as Section 14 dictates.
This is an extract from the Wikipedia article on companies:
Companies take various forms, such as:
voluntary associations, which may include [nonprofit organizations]**(Nonprofit organization - Wikipedia)
business entities, whose aim is to generate sales, revenue, and profit.
financial entities and banks
programs or educational institutions
The first item describes entities such as a German eV. If you are still not clear, refer to the rest of the article.
However, your narrow definition of a company is entirely irrelevant. All that matters is, first, what happens if the “organisation” becomes insolvent, and second, whether Codeberg can sell or otherwise dispose of any of its assets when it ISN’T insolvent.
Nothing you have said so far addresses either of these issues.
To be blunt, it’s clear to me that you are out of your depth. This is very clearly not your area of expertise. So, unless and until you are able to come up with definitive and convincing answers to these two points, I am withdrawing.
The thread was about the possibility of codeberg, the entity, beeing sold.
It cannot as I’ve already demonstrated.
Nice goalpost moving.
You are correct that in a Insolvency assets could be sold… of which codeberg has none. Because the source code they host is not their property, the servers they rent aren’t theirs and neither is the domain.
You clearly did not read their Satzung. No they cannot sell any assets as it would conflict with their stated goals. That is a crucial difference between this form of law and a random not-for-profit business.
No. The thread was about the code being sold, not Coldberg the eV.
Please be truthful. You have demonstrated nothing except that you know nothing.
You have now changed your tune and seem to be claiming that Codeberg the company don’t own their code. Really? So why were you claiming that the reason they couldn’t sell it was because they are an eV?
This is ridiculous. Don’t bother to reply.
It clearly wasn’t about user code beeing sold, as that makes no sense since it never was codebergs property to begin with.
Were you thinking of the forgejo code they develop too?
The one under a permissive license, where codeberg members only own partital code and there is no econicaml value?
That makes way more sense, clearly.
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