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Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

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Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#11

Post by onecommentonly »

StavrosK wrote: post #8
onecommentonly wrote: post #6

It's a disgrace. Not to pick on any particular person, considering that Silicon Valley has dozens of billionaires and thousands of filthy rich people, but Sean Parker got lucky with Facebook and spent like $12.5m in a wedding (including a fine). It's their money and all, but can't these rich people also write a $1 million check to an org as important as EFF ?

Can you write a $5 check to "an org as important as EFF", or are you just complaining that rich people don't donate?

You are assuming I didn't write that $50 check.

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#14

Post by hrabago »

Every time I read about digital privacy issues, and there's a lot of them, I'm always thankful that EFF exists and is there to fight these battles that I can't and don't have the means to.

I'm actually surprised at why some people here in HN think negatively of EFF. I'm very happy to hand over money to EFF each year. My employer allows us to pick charitable organizations to donate to from our paycheck, and EFF gets the biggest slice of the amount I allocate.

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#15

Post by alan_cx »

StavrosK wrote: post #8
onecommentonly wrote: post #6

It's a disgrace. Not to pick on any particular person, considering that Silicon Valley has dozens of billionaires and thousands of filthy rich people, but Sean Parker got lucky with Facebook and spent like $12.5m in a wedding (including a fine). It's their money and all, but can't these rich people also write a $1 million check to an org as important as EFF ?

Can you write a $5 check to "an org as important as EFF", or are you just complaining that rich people don't donate?

How much one donates is a distraction from the actual point.

The point is that these people have made their fortunes using the internet, and probably in no small part the freedoms that exist(ed). Its is not that they are rich, is system on which they got rich. I think many people would feel that such people should donate as a sort of pay back, paying one's dues. The rich part of the point simple suggests that a decent donation would be small fry to such people, and cause them no pain. $5 to some people could be a significant hit to the pocket.

Edit: Been in garden, letting the subconscious flow, and it suddenly occurred to me that donations from the likes of google and facebook would be a problem. Eventually EFF would be accused of being in google's pocket and all hell would break loose.

Begs the question: how can the likes of google donate to the likes of the EFF with out there being the suspicion of a conflict of interest?

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#16

Post by mapt »

lazyjones wrote: post #10

1) it's "Electronic Frontier Foundation" 2) It's a disgrace that they get so few donations. If that is our investment in our digital future, it's no wonder that it's all going downhill... If you are an entrepreneur or developer, you should seriously consider making healthy, recurring donations.

I plead lack of morning caffeine.

If a mod sees this, please fix.

Re: Electronic Frontier Foundation Survives on $5M/year

#18

Post by andrewcooke »

many years ago both me and my partner decided we should donate 1% of our earnings to some good cause (there seems to be a common 'meme' of giving one percent of earnings - googling turns up a lot of different ideas).

it was a good idea, and we did it once, i think, before forgetting. then a few years passed, we remembered, and did it once again. and then a few more years passed and we felt bad and got our acts together...

so now paulina regularly gives to some foundation here in chile that looks after old people, and i give to the EFF (it took me some time to decide, and i am not convinced it's the most deserving thing out there, but it does reflect me and my priorities, and in the end i decided that was what was important - other people might care more about children, or puppies, but what i want is to get the underlying freedoms straight).

anyway, i'm not boasting. i just suspect other people have thought the same, and, like us, simply not got round to it for a long time. so i thought i'd try give such people a little nudge ;o)

(also, they have cool pin badges and a really ugly t-shirt)

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