Ok. So we've bandied the ideas about in the past but we haven't really pushed for things one way or another.
So this is just a discussion to get ideas on:
Should we have an official SCP store?
How should we run it if so?
How will we manage the income from it if so?
What should our policies be on outside merchandisers?
Under what circumstances would we link to outside merchandisers?
Can we do any of this without being a legal entity?
My basic thoughts:
We should have an official store that is hosted on the site itself for merchandise. The merchandise in the store should be that which is designed by outside merchants. A percentage of all sales should go towards the upkeep of the SCP website, possibly a percentage to applicable authors(questionable), and the remainder to the merchants who designed the different materials.
We should have a specific set of requirements for outside merchants to be linked or listed on the main site, including(but not limited to):
1. Follow the requirements of Creative Commons(specifically, providing proper attribution and releasing their products under the same license)
2. Obtain permission from applicable authors for the materials they create, and negotiate any terms that author might have for the use and sale of products based on their materials(so we don't have to do that ourselves).
3. Not be copying any other merchant's work(to avoid infighting). It's legal for them to do, sure, and we wouldn't be able to stop people as long as they followed CC correctly, but that doesn't mean we have to include them on the site store.
4. Not be making really crappy products(subjective, but we can determine that ourselves).
What are the Staff's thoughts about these things?
Discussion will go for a week. If a consensus is reached on the kind of action we should take, we can make a vote thread on these issues as well.
