Comment Re:They could not get a permit even i they wanted (Score 1) 252
This is quite a silly law and has been in the news here in Finland quite a lot recently. There could be misuse of the law, but I have a feeling it isn't that common and I doubt that the Wikimedia foundation has been singled out.
The police have been very openly active at enforcing the law and whilst resulting in situations like this, unfortunately it is easy to forget that it is their job to do so and they are right to do it. It is not the police's actions that need to be amended, but the law itself. That being said, I am personally frustrated to see tax money spent on such waste.
I understand that the purpose of the law is supposed to protect against scam organizations. We had eg. one cancer relief fund (on organization) that collected money and had spent around 99% of the donation money to administrative costs *1. A blatantly fraudulent enterprise. I have no idea how efficient the law is at fighting fraudulent organizations such as those, but I do have some doubts.
Similar baffling interjections by police have come up with companies. A recent one was a small radio station "Radio Helsinki", that introduced voluntary listening fees to gather funds. That was not possible *2. Also the kickstarter-like projects faced somewhat similar troubles *3.
Hopefully Finnish taxpayers contact their members of parliament about refactoring the law, or perhaps even use the citizens initiative act *4 to address the issue.
*1, "Cancer business leads to fraud prosecution", in finnish. http://blogit.mtv.fi/kolmevart...
*2, "The police board shoots down Radio Helsinki's listener's fees", in finnish. http://yle.fi/uutiset/poliisih...
*3, "The police shoot down facebook based book campaign", in finnish. http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etus...
*4, https://www.kansalaisaloite.fi...
The police have been very openly active at enforcing the law and whilst resulting in situations like this, unfortunately it is easy to forget that it is their job to do so and they are right to do it. It is not the police's actions that need to be amended, but the law itself. That being said, I am personally frustrated to see tax money spent on such waste.
I understand that the purpose of the law is supposed to protect against scam organizations. We had eg. one cancer relief fund (on organization) that collected money and had spent around 99% of the donation money to administrative costs *1. A blatantly fraudulent enterprise. I have no idea how efficient the law is at fighting fraudulent organizations such as those, but I do have some doubts.
Similar baffling interjections by police have come up with companies. A recent one was a small radio station "Radio Helsinki", that introduced voluntary listening fees to gather funds. That was not possible *2. Also the kickstarter-like projects faced somewhat similar troubles *3.
Hopefully Finnish taxpayers contact their members of parliament about refactoring the law, or perhaps even use the citizens initiative act *4 to address the issue.
*1, "Cancer business leads to fraud prosecution", in finnish. http://blogit.mtv.fi/kolmevart...
*2, "The police board shoots down Radio Helsinki's listener's fees", in finnish. http://yle.fi/uutiset/poliisih...
*3, "The police shoot down facebook based book campaign", in finnish. http://www.kauppalehti.fi/etus...
*4, https://www.kansalaisaloite.fi...
