Accepting the money without interference

> ...My recommendations to ASF: accept the money, but only under 
> the most ironclad guarantees of non-interference and only so 
> long as measures can be undertaken to avoid dependence on 
> future recurring funds from that source....

This is exactly what the ASF does: we do not accept directed donations, and as the list of
sponsors at http://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html shows, we are not dependent on any of
them individually. 

As a public charity, our financial reports and board minutes are available at
http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/ .

The ASF is all about people, not companies, and our structure and rules have been designed so
as to avoid any company interference. This is not always easy to execute, as many companies
want to be associated with the ASF brand today, but as this is one of our core principles we
spend a lot of energy in making sure we stay true to that. That's valid with respect to any
company, be it a sponsor or not.

-- Bertrand Delacretaz (expressing my own opinions, not an official ASF statement)