Re: [Fsfe-uk] Renting GPL software (legal forms)

[Paul Waring]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 09:14:14AM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> As I understand it, cooperatives *can* have outside funding, but only
> pay a limited rate of interest (usually linked to bank rates) on
> capital invested, rather than the potentially x000% return if you get
> lucky with a shareholding.

Cooperatives don't have shares in the same way that companies do - if
you want to get out of a coop (effectively resign your membership) you
usually get the same amount back as you put in originally. The fact that
you can make a capital gain (or indeed loss) on shares, mainly because
they can be bought and sold (you can't sell your stake in a cooperative)
is why you can make 1000% returns.

If you look at yields from companies limited by shares, public ones tend
to be pretty poor, usually less than 5%, which is your effective rate of
interest.

As for cooperatives, they can definitely have outside funding, but often
try to limit the rate of interest to discourage people investing for
financial gain rather than because they agree with the cooperative's
aims and objectives.

Paul

-- 
Paul Waring
http://www.pwaring.com