For a project that is about freedom of information they sure kept this vague. Why not share more details of why you had to fire people, what funding sources dried up, etc?
For a project about privacy it seems appropriate though!
Covid-19’s impact on Tor
31–40 of 204 posts
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#32They are too dependent on government sponsorship. 80% of their funding comes from the US government in some shape. I would imagine that a project of that importance deserves to be able to be self-sufficient. A US$2M budget/year is not that much, (m|b)illionaires making their money from the Internet could easily sponsor the project. Better yet, having grass-root sponsorship is even more important. Maybe they need mark…
There is no tech company that is going to sponsor a browser that makes it harder for them to track customers.
Craigslist is a sponsor, so not all tech companies think that way.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#33They are too dependent on government sponsorship. 80% of their funding comes from the US government in some shape. I would imagine that a project of that importance deserves to be able to be self-sufficient. A US$2M budget/year is not that much, (m|b)illionaires making their money from the Internet could easily sponsor the project. Better yet, having grass-root sponsorship is even more important. Maybe they need mark…
They are trying their best to diversify their donation sources.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the protestors are being stupid, but if they get arrested I would like to see the ACLU help defend them. Even though I think established law would put them in the "shouting fire in a crowded theater" camp, unless the courts are willing to reverse that precedent.
That precedent was comprehensively reversed by the 1950s.
Cool, hopefully that's the case. I'm not familiar enough with the case law to know. It's just a salient point of my high school education.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But I don’t see any take on any measures governments have taken to kerb civil rights in the time of the pandemic Part of it is that I expect that the ACLU doesn't really want to take on cases that are simply going to be moot once the state of emergency ends. I expect that their ears will perk up a little more about things that don't go back to "normal" once everything is done with. And part of it is probably not wa…
I'm not saying everything ends up being like the Patriot Act, but sometimes they do and once they get enacted they like hanging on way past their due date --sometimes they don't even sunset at all.
And what makes you think that the current scenario is an example? You think the government likes having a near-complete cessation of tax revenue?
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#36They are too dependent on government sponsorship. 80% of their funding comes from the US government in some shape. I would imagine that a project of that importance deserves to be able to be self-sufficient. A US$2M budget/year is not that much, (m|b)illionaires making their money from the Internet could easily sponsor the project. Better yet, having grass-root sponsorship is even more important. Maybe they need mark…
There is no tech company that is going to sponsor a browser that makes it harder for them to track customers.
Companies with network effects benefit from having literally everyone on the platform, so you don’t need to go to a competitor to communicate with any particular person. That’s why Facebook has a Tor endpoint, so that people in repressive environments can still use it and add to the network effect. The downside is that Tor support does enable harassment on the platform.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#37They are too dependent on government sponsorship. 80% of their funding comes from the US government in some shape. I would imagine that a project of that importance deserves to be able to be self-sufficient. A US$2M budget/year is not that much, (m|b)illionaires making their money from the Internet could easily sponsor the project. Better yet, having grass-root sponsorship is even more important. Maybe they need mark…
I work on a project depended upon and repeatedly promoted by Snowden (tweets) and less-than-public-figures-who-lives-depend-on-it (pastebins).
We gave up writing grant proposals. After repeatedly pouring hours into crafting proposals exactly as specified, the big one (no plural) OTF (.gov funding) has never responded. The smaller, more informal ones aren't interested as well (no clue why).
What little OTF money there is goes to the same projects, written by the same grant writers. We're told by insiders that we need connections, need to hire those writers, and we're told we need a sexier story.
We can't fund a modest income for the lead developer (approaching nearly a decade). He lives cheaply in a developing country off anonymous donations of unpredictable amount and timing.
Tor has resources we couldn't dream of, and if they're cutting staff, there's no hope for any open source security project.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#38Why isn't there a public open-source fund to finance open projects (ie one to which the donors have no clue or control where the funds will eventually go; they're disbursed on the basis of how widely something is used)?
See Gitcoin: https://gitcoin.co/landing
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Imagine if your company was going through a financially difficult time, and firing becomes the only path forward. This can greatly impact the team's moral and trust in management. Using the crisis as a scapegoat makes it easier to accept the event.
I’m not saying that it is necessarily a bad thing, just that blaming a few months of decreased donations for laying off 37% of your employees doesn’t pass my sniff test. Why not state the real reason?
If your donations were only covering ongoing expenses with nothing left for a reserve fund, then losing a third of your funding and laying off a third of your workforce doesn't seem unreasonable.
Re: Covid-19’s impact on Tor
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
That precedent was comprehensively reversed by the 1950s.
Cool, hopefully that's the case. I'm not familiar enough with the case law to know. It's just a salient point of my high school education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes_Jr.
The quote you know dates to 1919 and was a metaphor used to justify suppression of political speech during WWI.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/249us47
It's pretty fucking shameful.
https://www.popehat.com/2018/06/28/make-no-law-episode-seven... for a great podcast about it.