This document may be downloaded in PDF format here.

The AutoHotkey Foundation

The Name

The name AutoHotkey Foundation LLC comes directly from the name of the software AutoHotkey. It is a non-profit LLC (Limited Liability Company) founded for this software.
Here is the Certificate of Organization.

Our Purpose

The AutoHotkey Foundation LLC was founded on April 24^th 2014 in Indiana, USA. It was created in order to prevent monetization, ensure the continuing existence of the software AutoHotkey and naturally, continue the support for it. This foundation provides organizational, legal, and financial support for this software. It is a volunteer organization created by the community, for the community.

Who manages it?

The foundation's managers are Charlie Simmons (tank), Steve Gray (Lexikos) and Joachim de Fourestier (joedf) with guidance from Chris Mallett (the creator of the software AutoHotkey).

Our Mission

The tenets of this project will not change. We have and will continue to filter obvious wrongdoing. That said, we are not to be held responsible for any misuse. We shall not be financially liable for any misdeed. An LLC also serves to separate person from entity. Consider the following example: violating a license is not a criminal matter but there could be legal concerns if we appeared to have supported it. As such, the AutoHotkey Foundation LLC is not to be held responsible for any misuse of this product.

Many users were unhappy with the forum software changes and site administration policies, and when these opinions were voiced, entire threads were deleted as well as moderators were getting stripped of their privileges. Finally, we came here (ahkscript.org) and contacted Chris for his approval of creating a foundation. Here is a quote:

Having a real organization, especially a legal entity, would be quite an achievement. I'm glad you've done some preliminary research into it because it's far beyond anything I have any knowledge of. My response to your proposal is that as long as I wouldn't be responsible for the legal aspects or any other part of maintaining the organization (keeping it going), I wouldn't mind having some kind of guiding/suggesting position just the way you described, with some emergency authority in case things ever departed radically from the original spirit of the project (such as moving toward commercialization or bundling third-party, disreputable software with AutoHotkey).

We want a free and open, unaffiliated community that is transparent and respectful to all fellow users and developers. Here is our mission statement:

Provide highly useful Open Source Software (OSS) free of charge at the foundation owned domain.
Support the Software
Keep it Open Source
Not monetize the software or support site.
Have more than one person that can make changes to the site
Offer a web site to support the scripting software for windows
- A support forum suitable to the sharing of knowledge for a scripting community.
- Administration without monopoly
- Solicits content improvements from the community
- Hosts documentation that is freely available
- Protects the community from SPAM, violent, derogatory, or any other abusive content.
- Transparently identifies Moderators and Site Administrators
- Supports users of multiple preferred languages when the user base is large enough to support it and adequate moderators are available.

Our History

You may read about it in detail here: https://autohotkey.com/foundation/history.html

Contributions

We are and will always be a volunteer organization. No one that is part of this will collect salary or fee. In the interest of staying with Chris's wish to not monetize AutoHotkey, from time to time we may need to open up and allow donations. Please note contributions are not only monetary. You may also contribute by developing code, submitting a bug fix, improving the documentation, helping other members, or even just filling a bug report. All funds or donations collected should and will be given to support this foundation and not to elicit any favour or rank.

You may donate through PayPal here.

Contact information

For any concerns, issues or any other problems, it is suggested to try the support forum first. If the subject matter is specifically about the foundation or its resources, you may also contact support (support[at]ahkscript.org).