This will be controversial.

While waiting for my Amtrak bus out of SF to the rail connection in the East Bay, I spent a few hours at the San Francisco Main Library. Not only did I read a book about forming 501 (#) c nonprofits, but also one about forming them in the state of California.

An interesting footnote came up.

It was about what nonprofits can't do. One thing nonprofits can't do is try to influence political campaigns and legislative agendas. Who does this? Curebie groups.


There is also an interesting case, which I hadn't time to dig up or read, about nonprofits engaging in "propaganda" - trying to sway the public to undertake certain political opinions.

Curebies are doing this all the time with their whining videos posted all over the web and misleading brochures and websites.

Imagine a world where curebie sites had their 501 (3) c statuses challenged and their ability to accept tax deductible donations taken away. Can you?

Imagine how illegitimate they would seem just for the fact of being involved in such litigation?

Who here would be interested in joining in a formal legal challenge to the 501 (3) c status of all curebie organizations?

I'd sure like to get started on it.

Sorry. Citizen of the 'wrong' country here.

I'm not talking about suing them personally. I'm talking about filing a formal complaint with both the IRS and each state in which they enjoy tax exempt status, and then letting the government do their job and check if their activities are legal.

I don't think you need to be a citizen to complain that laws are being broken.

We need to start by preparing a list of the worst offenders - like CAN and such - and I remember exactly where to find that footnote on the propaganda issue in the Mancuso book recommended by California Lawyers for the Arts.

In fact, the whole issue is a good one about why this board might wish not to incorporate as a non-profit - just in case someone wanted to claim that something political posted by a member violated the very rules I was talking about.

But those people do it all the time.

To be legal, apparently posts must be "informational" and not "persuasional." That's a distinction without a difference the way I write.

Selectively informational is going to be persuasional, don't you think? As for being able to complain about laws being broken when you are not a citizen, maybe, but I have serious doubts about it being possible for a non-resident. Regardless though, I don't have enough time to do what I'm doing now. I don't want to add even more to my workload.

Anyone care to at least help make the list of the most offensive curebie organizations and perhaps give examples I can cite of their political or propagandistic work? Amy time they mention a bill or law which is proposed would qualify. Any time they claim that we need a "cure" could be alleged to be propagandistic, just as Hitler's call for a "final solution" was propagandistic in its way.

If you guys can give me a list if 5 organizations with references to 5 examples, I can stop by the library again when I am in the city (which will be within about a week as I have a single to re-mix in silicon valley so it can be out in time for Christmas) www.garrickdavis.com - "embrace love and change" - doing it free as an audition for the rest of the record - then I can draft and mail the complaints citing those examples, ask that their 501 (3) status be revoked, and it will be a Merry Christmas for them as they answer IRS and State Tax Board inquiries.

So: Who are the worst? Name the worst they've been doing. That's all I ask. I'll handle the law, the drafting, the mailing. Maybe even a nice press release stating that they are under investigation for their activities including some nice examples we have dug up. I'll release it under my own name.

I just need a little bit of help here, because as you all know I am literally in the middle of 3 other projects related to music right now, but this seems too good to pass up.

Unless one of you would rather take over negotiations with two separate divisions of Warner Brothers to secure some rights we need for the charity CD. :)`