Video announcement by Chris Wanstrath (GitHub co-founder) of the 501© non-profit and $1,000,000 donation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9edTqPMX_k
Chris Wanstrath … $1,000,000 donation
So… not independent then.
from the FAQ
- How can you be “independent” if you have sponsors?
- All sponsorships are in the form of unrestricted donations. Board seats and other forms of influence are not for sale.
The threat of losing future donations if you upset a sponsor is still coercive.
(sad part is even if they sold out, they’d still be leagues ahead of the compromises Firefox and Chrome have made)
The website claims that sponsors have no direct influence on the project (“board seats are not for sale”). The reality is that no project of sufficient scale to fully implement web standards can survive without a significant amount of funding.