Note: This is draft text for what was eventually hand-written onto Schedule O. If they ever ask for more details, though, start from the below.
QuestionCopyright.org had 2010 business income from sales of DVDs, t-shirts, stickers, and other affinity items from our online store. We only sell items directly related to our mission: to reframe the discussion about copyright by raising public awareness of the social and economic harm caused by distribution monopolies, and to demonstrate how free (i.e., non-monopolistic) distribution is better for artists and audiences. The items we sell fall into two categories: those designed to generically promote our mission by giving people a means of prominently displaying slogans and ideas related to the mission, and those promoting specific projects (such as the Sita Distribution Project) that are directly related to our mission.
We undertook the online store with no expectation of profit, and would continue to operate it even at a loss because it helps raise awareness of our goals. The connection between the store items and our mission is made explicit throughout the store, not just on the items themselves but in the accompanying text describing them. In that text, we provide information about the costs of selling those kinds of products and accordingly demonstrate an alternative to the traditional copyright licensing model. We believe that the store itself is an educational tool and an exercise in promoting our mission. Because part of the purpose of our store is to demonstrate the potential of non-monopolistic models in supporting artistic and cultural production, we actively encourage others to adopt the same model and even sell the same items in the same ways, despite the fact that when they do so the competition cuts into our revenues. For us, such competition is a gain not a loss, because it still supports our mission whether or not our particular store is involved. For example, all of the images of the items (and the images used in the production of our items) available for sale in our store are freely licensed, permitting anyone to make their own versions of the products to sell or distribute in any way they choose. Furthermore, we share our store sales data publicly (redacting customer identifying information, of course), to help familiarize other artists and distributors with the economics of non-monopolistic distribution.
The store is administered entirely by volunteers. The only beneficiaries are QuestionCopyright.org itself and affiliated artists who have agreed to participate in free distribution of their works as part of a formal association with QuestionCopyright.org for a specific project to demonstrate an alternative to a traditional copyright-based approach to distributing and monetizing their work.