Linux Foundation—Linux Foundation eliminated individual member voting rights and made at-large board seats optional
In January 2016, the Linux Foundation changed its bylaws to eliminate voting rights for individual members and made at-large members of its board of directors optional. Developer Matthew Garrett criticized the changes, speculating they were designed to prevent Karen Sandler of the Software Freedom Conservancy from running for the board due to her support of the GPL license. Critics argued the changes concentrated governance power among corporate platinum members paying $500K/year while excluding community voices from decision-making.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Open Source | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.643 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
Linux Foundation bylaws changed to eliminate individual member voting rights
The Linux Foundation revised its bylaws in January 2016 to remove voting rights for individual members and make at-large board directors optional. Developer Matthew Garrett publicly criticized the changes, arguing they were designed to prevent Karen Sandler of the Software Freedom Conservancy from running for the board due to her GPL advocacy. The changes concentrated governance power among corporate platinum members.