Oh, I wouldn't say that. The clear confirmation came from the introduction of the CLA. Regardless of how free the license is (or which type of freedoms you want from a license) once you make one party more equal than all others the pretense of "community project" goes out the window.

That's not to say people outside the company can't be highly involved and feel like they have an ownership stake in productive way. Just that when push comes to shove they find out they don't have an ownership stake. See: The Hudson/Jenkins split.