Post #1572

systemd birthDate Merge: Corporate Filings & Governance Failure Investigation pulled Amutable's founding documents from the German Handelsregister The corporate filings show three equal shareholders, no outside investors, and self-dealing exemptions that let any founder sign contracts between the company and their own personal entities All three founders were employed at Microsoft when they signed the founding deed. A hidden shareholders' agreement referenced three times in the Articles of Association but never filed publicly governs economic rights, IP assignment, and vesting terms the public cannot see. Three decisions put the birthDate field into #systemd. Each was made by someone with a direct financial interest in the outcome No one disclosed those interests. systemd has no conflict-of-interest policy, no steering committee, no community veto, and no disclosure requirements. The project that boots every major Linux distribution has less formal governance than a typical mid-size open source project.