• The non-profit association Easter-eggs.org and the commercial company Easter-eggs
• Easter-eggs and Free Software
• Participating in Easter-eggs.org
• The little details of Easter-eggs

The non-profit association Easter-eggs.org and the commercial company Easter-eggs

1. What’s the difference between the non-profit association Easter-eggs.org and the commercial company Easter-eggs ?
2. Why haven’t you simply distributed an equal number of shares to each employee ?
3. Why didn’t you create a worker cooperative ?
4. What’s the reason why Easter-eggs.org doesn’t own all the shares of Easter-eggs.com ?
5. Who owns the only share of Easter-eggs.com which does not belong to the non-profit association ?
6. What’s the wages standard in Easter-eggs ?
7. Can this model apply to any type of company ?
8. I want to create a company with a similar model. Can you help me ?

Easter-eggs and Free Software

1. What’s your stand on Software Patents ?
2. What is your favorite GNU/Linux distribution ?
3. Do you support any other non-profit association for the promotion or defense of Free Software ?

Participating in Easter-eggs.org

1. How can I participate in Easter-eggs ?

The little details of Easter-eggs

1. What does "Easter-eggs" mean ?
2. Who has designed Easter-eggs’ logo ?

The non-profit association Easter-eggs.org and the commercial company Easter-eggs

What’s the difference between the non-profit association Easter-eggs.org and the commercial company Easter-eggs ?

Easter-eggs is a French Law private limited company (a SARL) whose shares are owned by the non-profit association Easter-eggs.org. Only employees of Easter-eggs can be members of Easter-eggs.org. The company is therefore controlled by its employees.

Why haven’t you simply distributed an equal number of shares to each employee ?

Our goal was for Easter-eggs to be entirely and equally owned by all its employees.
We initially wanted each of us to own an equal number of shares of the company. The requirement was that one would give one’s shares back without charge when leaving Easter-eggs, but such an obligation seems to go against the idea of property in French Law. Furthermore, the transfer of shares (of a SARL) is subject to various formalities, including tax and registration which are calculated on the shares’ real value.
After two years of thinking, we decided to create a non-profit association, and made it buy the company. This solution is not perfect, but it solves all our problems.

Why didn’t you create a worker cooperative ?

As far as we know, there is no obligation for the employee of a cooperative to give his shares back when he leaves. This can become a serious problem, as the cooperative may eventually no longer belong to its employees.

What’s the reason why Easter-eggs.org doesn’t own all the shares of Easter-eggs ?

Easter-eggs is a French Law private limited company (a SARL), which means it must have at least 2 partners. There exists a type of SARL with only one shareholder (the EURL), but we reckoned that change would not be beneficial for Easter-eggs’ image.
Easter-eggs.org owns every share but one, that is 499 out of 500.

Who owns the only share of Easter-eggs that does not belong to the Easter-eggs.org ?

One of the company’s employees, Emmanuel Raviart. He has commited to give his share back if he happens to leave Easter-eggs.org.

What’s the wages standard in Easter-eggs ?

As of December 2000, the salary of every employee, including the manager, amounts to 12.000 FF (with all legal contributions deduced). Only trainees and apprenticeships, insertion or alternation contracts don’t have the same wages.

Can this model apply to any type of company ?

We don’t think this model can apply to companies which require large investments. Howewer, we can’t think of any reason why it couldn’t apply to services, expertise or consulting firms ; or more generally, any company where the work force represents the main part of the costs.

I want to create a company with a similar model. Can you help me ?

We are willing to help any similar initiative. We have limited means, but our help can range from simple advice or technical help to full particiation in the capital of the company.
Feel free to contact us.

Easter-eggs and Free Software

What’s your stand on software patents ?

We are against software patents. For more information, read www.freepatents.org/ or League for Programming Freedom.

What is your favorite GNU/Linux distribution ?

Our favorite distribution is Debian GNU/Linux. We think it is the most reliable, the most complete, and the most suited to remote administration. Its strength and originality is to be developed by several hundreds of volunteers spread around the world, rather than by a single company. All our servers (as well as our clients’ unless they are against it) run Debian GNU/Linux. Our employees are free to use their favorite distribution, only it always ends up being Debian GNU/Linux.

Do you support any other non-profit association for the promotion or defense of Free Software ?

In 1998, Easter-eggs was a founding member of AFUL. Easter-eggs is currently a member of APRIL, whis is one of the sister organizations of the Free Software Foundation in France.

Participating in Easter-eggs.org

How can I participate in Easter-eggs ?

If you are interested in our philosophy and activity, and have any related skill, feel free to apply. If you have your own activity, me may be able to help or cooperate. Or you can talk about us around you. Or better still, you can bring us business, we’d be grateful :-).
In any case, please suscribe to the Easter-eggs’ friendsmailing list, and tell us about your ideas.

The little details of Easter-eggs

What does "Easter-eggs" mean ?

In a piece of software, an easter-egg is a hidden function, a surprise intentionally left by the programmers, and triggered by some peculiar user action. Let’s point out that Free Software doesn’t generally contain easter-eggs, as its source code is freely available, and anybody can check what it does.

Who has designed Easter-eggs’ logo ?

Easter-eggs’ logo is named Mister Eggs. It has been designed by Thierry Dulieu, one of our employees.