The people should own the town square
blog.joinmastodon.org
It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control.
  • mutant_zz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    22 days ago

    This is a great move. Governance is extremely important for bigger OSS projects, and the “benevolent dictator” model has its limits.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
    224·
    23 days ago

    Does this mean they’ll fix all the things that Eugene refused to fix? Bullish on Eugene leaving mastodon

  • atro_city@fedia.io
    181·
    23 days ago

    The existing US-based non-profit entity, the 501©(3), will continue to function as a fundraising hub.

    Wait, is the money transferred to the US then back to the EU? And will the US-based non-profit still continue to exist or will it be replaced by a truly European one?

    • andypiper@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      19·
      23 days ago

      The 501(c)(3) is a fundraising entity, and will continue to exist. There will be a new independent European non-profit that will “own” (for the want of a better word) the other entities. Legal structures and things are not my forte (IANAL), that’s my understanding of what is happening in so far as I’m involved in the discussions and what I’m able to tell you.

  • Olap@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    23 days ago

    No mention of the name Mastodon and copyrights which I seem to recall is one of the bigger complaints

    • andypiper@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      22·
      23 days ago

      These are part of the assets that will be transferred from the GmbH to the non-profit.

      • Olap@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        23 days ago

        Given the concern, it would be good to be explicit in the blog post. What other assets does it genuinely need? The code is open source, people are free to host instances